The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying
and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether
it's in the arts, sciences, or business.
~ Teresa Amabile
In September, I’m participating in the Sapphire
Even Day Blogging Challenge and the
Two Pages-A-Day Writing Challenge.
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oals are meant to be
SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. As I begin this journey of 122 days of
writing, I have no theme or topic I want to write about.
Strike one.
No worries. Today’s writing exercise will be to follow
the five steps of goal setting to figure out what I want the end product to
look like in December.
Specific
– Details, Details, Details!
My general goal is
become a better writer, and to have a publishable work in 122 days. Sounds crazy, but writers have written entire
novels in 30 days; I have 92 extra days to get it right.
The question is ~ what
do I want to write about?
I love people and figuring
out what makes them tick. That could
mean writing about relationships, emotional healing, psychological disorders. Although I’m not a trained psychologist, I could offer my personal experience. I
could even co-author with a psychologist.
They would provide the scientific background, I would provide the
poetic prose.
Or I could write a
book of meditations. That only requires
an open heart, a spiritual outlook, and a poetic soul. Check, check, and check.
Hmmmm.
Measurable – Quantitative, Not Vague!
This is built in ~ two
pages a day. Of course, there’s no
limit. I could write ten pages if the
mood strikes me. But regardless, I have
to write two pages minimum. And we are
talking writing, not editing. I have a
kitchen timer, so I may try setting it for an hour today and seeing how far
that gets me. I’ll adjust accordingly.
Attainable
– Challenge Brings About Growth!
Two pages a day is
definitely attainable. I have two
blogging challenges under my belt and that was writing a post every day for
thirty days. Granted, the posts may not
have been two pages long. But as I’ve
said before, the act of writing begets writing.
Realistic
– What Are You Willing to Work Toward?
This relates back to
the Specific question: what is my topic going to be? Is it realistic for me to write about
relationships? Or to write artistic
meditations?
Timely –
Save the Date!
This is already set
for me ~ December 31, 2013. Done and
done.
Now it’s time to put
my thinking/writing chapeau on and get those two pages written!
Oremus pro invicem,
~ Mikaela
Have you
ever followed the SMART plan to attain your goals? Did it work?
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