Are you achieving your goals? Chances are that you aren’t. In one of the online meetings of our writers’ group, we discussed the ways in which life has changed. Those changes mean that for most of us, it’s time to set new goals.
Perhaps you need to change the goals you set at the beginning of 2020 too.
Achieving your goals: stay positive
Although life has changed in ways we could never have imagined, we can stay positive. Indeed, it’s our duty to stay positive, especially if we have children.
Commit to rising above the stress all around.
Pray. Ask for healing and strength.
Review your goals. Need to change them? Revise your goals. Perhaps it’s time to create new goals.
Review your goals: are they still achievable?
Chances are that your goals are still achievable, in some form. If they are, create new deadlines and plans. Keep them flexible. If you’re still on lockdown, then you won’t be able to put your plans into effect immediately.
Many of the staff at the marketing agency where I work have been furloughed. Our clients are struggling to stay viable.
When we get back to work, we’ll need to develop new strategies for our remaining clients—and find new clients too.
Can you radically change your goals?
If you’re jobless, you’ll need to change your goals.
Once you decide what you want, over-commit to that thing. Go all in. Pass your point of no return. When you do this, you’ll realize the true meaning of security, which can only come from within.
Not sure how to change your goals? Start with a brain dump. I’ve done several brain dumps over the past few days; they’re therapeutic.
A brain dump is simply the act of dumping all the contents of your mind onto paper as one might dump the contents of a purse onto a table… stressors, your nagging thoughts, your pesky annoyances… let all those thoughts flow out of your hand and onto some paper.
When you do a brain dump, you’re not aiming for solutions. You’re just aiming to look at what’s in your mind.
“The technique will work for you even if you don’t consider yourself a gifted writer or thinker. The writing itself generates thought, which is why some refer to this technique as automatic writing. It often produces intriguing results without labored effort on the part of the writer. At times, the thoughts seem to pop up on their own.”
Here’s the method I use for brain dumps using freewriting:
Be aware that you’ll write continuously for some minutes. I brain dump in ten minute sessions. You can freewrite for longer, if you wish. I limit myself to ten minutes because my RSI acts up otherwise;
Decide whether you’ll use a keyboard or pens and paper;
Set a timer and freewrite. “Dump your brain” — write whatever comes to mind;
Stay focused on writing. You can write in a stream of consciousness style, or in complete sentences. Either is fine.
Achieving your goals: freewrite your way to new goals and strategies
When you begin doing brain dumps, you’ll uncover lots of worries and concerns. This is fine! You need to do this to clear your mind.
Eventually (it may take many sessions) rather than listing your anxieties, you’ll find that your freewriting sessions move in a new direction. Your freewrites will develop new objectives and agendas.
Keep these “goals” brain dumps. (You can discard your earlier “miseries” brain dumps.)
You’ll winnow fresh ideas and insights from your new brain dumps. Additionally, you’ll develop strategies for achieving your goals.
Achieving your goals: you may be surprised at the new goals you set
In our writers’ group, several writers have developed plans for building their own businesses.
What new goals will you set? Create a brain dump in your bullet journal today.
A Regency time travel romance... What if you could escape across time, and find your soulmate?
Pure evil dispatches gorgeous Tara Ballantine across the centuries, to Regency England. Tara lands on Adam Jervoise, Earl of Hillingworth -- literally -- as he's riding through a bluebell wood.
Hillingworth is handsome, rich, and kind. He's also set to propose to an heiress.
When Tara realizes that she's falling in love with the earl, she fights the feeling.
Today, you can make money writing short fiction. Readers love short stories, because they can read a story in minutes, rather than devoting hours to reading a novel.
