Resolutions for Your Writing Practice in 2021

Resolutions? Yeah, I’m not sure about them, either. I’ve made mine vague, even though they’re important to me: they comprise only three words: I want to be positive, generous, and disciplined. That about covers it all, doesn’t it? 

But even if you don’t make resolutions, you can (and should) make goals for your practice.

Let’s start big. Leave off everything that’s sensible and practical and for just one moment, let your heart take wing. What is your dream vision for your writing practice? Take some time—an hour, a day—and just let your imagination run wild. We’re not looking at plans or goals, and we’re not even looking at 2021. What is your dream for your writing for the next five to 10 years? Before you set an annual goal for 2021, you need to get clear on where you see your writing practice headed in the future. 

Don’t be afraid of dreaming really big here, and try to not listen to any limiting thoughts that will naturally arise. Instead, get creative and even try to have fun with this!

You’re going to work hard to achieve this, so make it something amazing!

Goal-setting can feel overwhelming; people mostly want to achieve as much as possible in as short a time as possible, and that can lead down some unrealistic avenues. Dream big, but set goals that you can actually achieve. (Hint: “Make the bestseller list this year” may or may not fall into that category.) So take your time about it. Look through your calendar and find a day, or half a day, you can devote to planning what writing goals you want to meet this year.

Reframing your mindset when you’re setting your writing goals is essential. You cannot set (let alone achieve) goals from a place of scarcity. But this past year has pretty much kept us exactly there. There hasn’t been enough of anything—good news, community, income, health.

So as hard as it is, you need to step outside of those feelings. Take a deep breath. Visualize your writing in a world where things are again possible. That’s the world most of us are working toward. You need to set goals from an abundant and place where everything-is-possible. 

Before you do anything, you must revisit the year that just blessedly passed us by – 2020. Yeah, I know. I don’t like it, either. But you can do it… and you should. Looking at the year from the point of view of your writing practice, what worked for you? What didn’t? What did you accomplish? What was the easiest thing to do? What was the hardest?

• What thoughts did you leave behind in 2020? 
• What thoughts will you take with you into 2021?

You have to know where you’re starting from in order to know how big the gap is between where you are now and where you want to be.

And now… Choose one goal as your sole focus for 2021. That’s right. Just one. Avoid the trap of setting too many goals. If you do set too many, you’ll be spreading yourself too thin and you won’t have enough focus or time to accomplish it all.

This is why New Year’s Resolutions usually don’t work out. We set too many and keep our expectations high while execution is low. You definitely don’t want to fall into this trap.

Have a think about your answers to the following questions to help uncover your one-year goal: 

• What will move the needle for your writing practice?
• What do you want to achieve?
• What goal will have the biggest impact on your writing life?
• What would be amazing to have happen in 2021?

Take a minute and write down your answers.

And here’s the thing: Your goal should scare you a little. It should be a goal that requires you to step outside your comfort zone and become a better version of yourself.

Get clear on your why and make sure you’ve set your goal for the right reasons and that you actually like your reasoning. Knowing your why will make those tough, challenging days much easier to deal with, and you can find motivation in your why—motivation to keep going and to keep showing up for your goal.

Now you have this amazing, scary, wonderful goal for your writing practice. It’s time to make it work. So now that you know the why, you come to the nitty-gritty of the how.  This is where you break it down into quarterly chunks. Trust me: it’s what makes the goal-setting process much less likely to spur into complete overwhelm.

Breaking your one-year goal down makes it more feasible.

1. What are the steps you need to take in quarter one?
2. What are the steps you need to take in quarter two?
3. What are the steps you need to take in quarter three?
4. What are the steps you need to take in quarter four?

State all the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal and break it all down. Eventually you’ll be breaking even these quarterly steps into smaller ones, steps that show up in your daily to-do lists. But in the meantime? Take a deep breath. Smile.

You and your writing practice are going to have a fabulous 2021!