Happy New Year’s Eve! I hope this year is wrapping up nicely for you. Mine was, admittedly, a little messy, but all is righting itself and I’m going out with a bang!
I’ve accomplished many things this year, such as:
- Finishing and funding a full graphic novel
- Several short stories and comics
- Going on radio shows and giving a college guest lecture
- Scoring some freelance pre-press work
The list goes on. But there are a lot of goals that I didn’t meet. And there are a lot of items on that list that I never had on my plan to accomplish in the first place. So even though I accomplished a ton, I wasn’t all that satisfied with my ultimate goal, the graphic novel. That I sunk my life into for 9 months. Looking into my next project strategy… I’m going to have to do things differently.
So let’s talk about goals, shall we?
I’m super goal-oriented. I work best with a reason. If I’m told to just do something, rule-abiding me is absolutely going to do it, but I’ll pick it up the lesson faster if I know why I’m doing the task.
But, this year, I’m ditching goals.
Why?
After being successful with setting goals for myself for the last 20 years, I’ve come across an interesting phenomenon:
Focusing on goals means that I always think about what’s coming next, rather than celebrating what already is. Not to mention, if something takes more (or sometimes less) time than expected, things get derailed.
And who knows where a path could lead? In focusing on a specific goal (if you’re good at achieving goals) you eliminate the possibilities of other fabulous places you could end up.
Blazing the trail.
And so, this year, I’m going to focus on daily habits. I know what steps I need to take to further my career, relationships and health, so all I have to do is take one step each day, and I’ll get somewhere great.
It’s gonna be awesome.
I’m working on a series for February. It compliments last year’s Press-Ready, where I shared everything I go through in order to get my books set up and ready for print (as well as some quick writing and art methods).
PrepWork will outline some best practices for getting your project up and running. The four topics of the month will be:
- Organization – Why it’s important, even for “messy” creators
- Notes and research – Tailoring your notes and research to how you work best
- Design – Putting your research to use n an efficient manner
- Mapmaking – Laying out your thoughts in a rational way (and how to make cool maps of course)
Is all of this sounding good? Do you have any goals or habits that you’d like to implement next year?
Let me know in the comments section, and I’ll talk to you in the new year!
