Back of the book blurb (aka lifetime goals)

I spent a few hours one day last week reviewing and evaluating my 2007 writing goals. I’d written them down last January and committed them to a goal notebook.

In February, I promptly experienced a slight set-back and never came back to look at my goal notebook again, which had become little more at that point than a reminder of my failure.

Had I really failed? Of course not. But with the way my brain works, I couldn’t get passed the idea that I was now behind on my master plan and wouldn’t achieve perfection.

Have I mentioned that I have a few issues with perfectionism?

Looking back at my failings was good for me. Looking back at my successes was, too. I spent some time trying to decide what the difference was. What had I done differently in the areas where I was successful vs. where I wasn’t?

A good writing buddy sent me an exercise she was asked to do as part of a writing workshop. It said to write what you wanted your back cover blurb to say about you in five or ten years. This is a great exercise, and one I admit I haven’t done. (But I will.) This is in line with what so many goal setting gurus say: The first thing you have to do is decide what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or the next 5 or 10 years). Since I’m a writer, a back cover blurb about me is a great start.

The next thing the exercise said to do was print it out and tape it to the wall above your computer. Read it daily so that your brain can start making it part of your psyche.

Then, take that big goal and pare it down to what you have to do this year, next year, etc. to accomplish the big back-of-the-book-blurb. Some experts suggest setting a 5 year plan, 1 year plan, 6 month plan, and 1 month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals.

In addition goals should be positive, precise, and realistic. Finally, goals should be performance goals, not outcome goals. This might be a small part of last year’s goal problem for me. I have to focus on what I can do, not what others can do.

And finally, what no one ever says when you start making those goals: Life happens. This year, I’m building in flexibility. If I have a bad week or the stars line up incorrectly, I can’t assume I’m a failure. I have to make adjustments and move on. I have to keep tweaking.

Later this week, I’ll be posting my goals over at my personal blog. I was going to post today, but now that I’ve got this back cover blurb idea, I want to write that first. Where do I want to be realistically in five years? Where do I really want to be? Will answering that question change my goals? Maybe slightly. I’ll let you know. I’ll be posting my blurb and goals later (once the blurb is written).

If it’s out there for me to see – and you – I’m much more likely to accomplish it. After all, after my perfectionism tendencies, there is that little competitive issue I have.

Happy goal setting!

Macy