Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Set a Goal and Track Progress

I love goals and deadlines. People who know me well know that if you give me a deadline, I get really excited about it. I don't know why, but I do.

I found a fun website to help me with writing deadlines. It's called WordKeeper, and when you sign up, you input your manuscript deadline and your word count goal. The website tells you how many words you must write in a day to meet that deadline. The website is here: https://wordkeeperalpha.com

It's so manageable! It's so fun to chart progress!

I love coming to the end of the day and knowing that I met my daily writing goal. It's motivating and fun to see how far I've come and how manageable my goal is when broken down into daily segments. 

What begins this whole process is asking these kinds of questions about your goal: "What will it take to get there? (time and amount of daily work) How will I get there? (training and technique) What else do I need in order to get there?"(external motivators)

I think about the resources I need, including time, training, and equipment. I think about what kind of encouragement will sustain me on the journey. I think about trusting God with my emotions, fatigue, or other stressors that take me away from my goal.

It's how weight loss works. It's how training for a race works (I wouldn't know, but my runner friends tell me this).

Essentially, I'm learning that rather than looking at the huge thing in front of me (the end goal), tracking progress is way to have small, daily victories. I look at what each day requires in terms of time, technique, and equipment, and I set myself up for success. So far, so good!

I wish you the best with your own writing (or other) goals today. I'm thankful for what I'm learning about how daily, small victories will get us there.


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