How to Use Focus Words for Goal Setting

The last six months have been a whirlwind…to say the least. Personally, I’ve battled extremely low iron, which I had to get infusions for. And I got diagnosed with Psoriasis & Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). It wasn’t surprising, but since both low iron and PsA come with chronic fatigue, I’d pretty much get up every day feeling like I never went to bed.

Now that I’ve started treatment, I’m feeling better slowly but surely. Throughout the struggle, I clung to my business dream like it was going out of style. I knew I didn’t want to do quite the same thing - content writing for clients - but it didn’t become clear to me what to do for a while. After all, writing pays the bills and security is important!

I remember the day everything changed. I was driving home from the library (one of my favorite local workplaces) after a particularly tough content-writing session.

This can’t be it. There has to be something better.

I thought about how I missed teaching and being around real-life people. Wondering how I could impact more people than a few clients at a time, even though I enjoyed the people I worked with.

WORKSHOPS

It was one word that appeared in my mind - around June I think. Nothing has ever been more clear in my life. One of my colleagues hopped on a strategy call with me and the ideas just kept coming and coming. We were both so excited (and still are). I finally got it about business owners saying it was “easy.” And just plain fun to think about.

So I went about my business (literally), changing pretty much everything. Don’t worry - I’ll be sharing more soon. ;)

When the new year rolled around, I didn’t have trouble choosing how I want to spend the year.

Goal Setting with Focus Words

I’m going to guess you’ve heard of the word of the year trend. It’s pretty popular, and it’s always interesting to see what others are focusing on for the year. Last year, I couldn’t narrow it down so I chose 3: Steady, Ease, and Accept.

It was difficult to narrow down because I didn’t have a clear focus. I was on the fence about my services and pricing. I knew I had to pick one or the other direction and stick with it before I could expand, but I just didn’t want to. I also knew I was burned the heck out and needed something to give. I needed to be able to let it evolve on its own and see where it went without worrying about it every single moment of the day (you’ve had those thoughts, right? I know I’m not the only one).

So, because I love lists with a passion, I made a huge list of choices.

Like, a whole page of options.

How the hell does someone pick ONE word out of a whole page to focus on for the year??

Obviously, I missed the “word” of the year mark since I picked 3. But I felt good about it. It felt like something I could look at when everything seemed overwhelming and be comforted: all I had to do was stick to those three things and it would be okay.

2023 came easier for me, and I’m okay with having two focuses that go hand-in-hand. But if you’re in the space where you’re trying to figure out if the word of the year thing is even worth your time, it might help to think about it in a different way.

Here’s what I’ve learned about having a word of the year:

1. The term word of the year freaks me out because it feels too significant for one word

2. Goals are always top of mind and it’s okay to have a way to reign them in when they seem to be taking over your life (making it so you don’t actually achieve any of them)

3. My words of the year help me focus and drown out some of the distractions that come with running a business

4. The term focus is critical because it means something different than goals - it’s a bit less constricting but still productive

5. I can use other people’s examples and ideas and adapt them to what I need

So here’s what I’m going to suggest, if you, like me, find yourself in a place where you want direction, but can’t pick a single word.

1. Think about what you love about your business right now. If you’re looking for a change, what does that look like?

2. Think about what you’d love to do next. (Even if it doesn’t necessarily “match” what you do right now).

3. Think about how you want your business to feel for other people.

4. Think about how you want to feel as you run your business.

5. If you had one opportunity this year that would put a huge smile on your face and some dance in your pants, what would it be? How do you get closer to that?

6. Write down said thoughts on paper with a pen. Or type it out, your choice. ;) Don’t lose the thoughts, though! You never know when they might come in handy.

7. Breathe in, breathe out, and listen to what your heart and instincts are saying about how to move forward. Trust said instinct and run with it.

Is this scientific? Nope. Is it woo-woo? Yep.

The question you’re wondering now, especially if you’re a skeptic of the woo-woo world: Does it work? Absolutely.

My Focus Words for 2023

Sometimes an example is just the thing to make an idea easier to understand. So I thought I’d share my focus words for 2023. They’re “fun” and “easy.”

More specifically, the phrases I’m focusing on are:

Let it be fun.

Let it be easy.

Let it be fun is about how I want to feel in my business. I love writing more than most things and I want to share that passion more widely rather than simply doing it. I also love teaching, but I don’t miss grading. How do I put those two things together in my business? Writing workshops. It’s fun, it’s meaningful, and it gets me into the community where I wanted to be the whole time.

Let it be easy is about how I approach my business. I have a tendency to overthink, overanalyze, and pick things to death. It’s stressful, and I’m sure it’s part of an anxiety reaction; however, it doesn’t have to be a thing at all. Not really. So letting it be easy, for me, is about trusting my instincts, taking opportunities that come along, and letting myself just do it already. Ironically, letting it be easy is often the challenge, not the business part.

Some of the other focus words I’ve heard about from my network this year are: growth, confidence, balance, purpose, intent, and present.

What about you? Did you set focus words? Or do you like having a word of the year? Comment below or find me on socials - let’s talk about it!

TL;DR

Try choosing a couple of focus words rather than restricting yourself to a single word of the year. Let it be fun, let it be easy, and don’t forget that you get to do what you love in your business. No matter what words/phrases you choose, always keep your passion and joy top of mind.

How to Stick With Your Business Goals

It’s the month to make goals. And in another few weeks, to fall off of them. We know ‘em, we love ‘em: New Year's Resolutions. 

I’m all for people trying to improve themselves personally and professionally. I just think we need to be better about how we set goals and make sure we stick with them. 

It’s easy to say you’re going to do something…but life gets in the way and you forget about it or continue to push it off. 

Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to you in 2022!

Why Business Goals are Important

According to Positive Psychology, “Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guide your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life. Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.” 

You might have an idea of where you want to be in five or ten years, but how are you going to get there? Goals are meant to help you achieve your dream life. They’re small wins that add up to big wins. Goals motivate us and remind us what we’re working towards. Goal setting is important because it gives you the confidence you need to achieve success, whatever that looks like for you.

How to Stick with Your Business Goals/Accountability

So how do you stick with your goals once you set them? Here are a few of our favorite ways to help keep you moving forward. 

SMART Goals

We’ve all heard of SMART goals, right? If not, it means your goals are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

SMART goals are the perfect way to stick to your business goals. The purpose is to get really specific about what you want to achieve. For example, you wouldn’t say, “I want to increase my revenue.” A SMART goal would be, “I’m going to increase my revenue by 10% by the end of Q1 by bringing on three new clients at $1,000/month.” 

You know your timeline (end of Q1), how to measure it, it’s super specific, and it’s attainable and realistic. Start making SMART goals, and you’ll reach your goals faster. 

SMART goals also work particularly well for writers, in case you’re a creative professional looking to get your writing on track this year, too.

Accountability Partner

Another way to stick to your business goals is to find an accountability partner. Someone to give you a kick in the ass when you need it (kindly, of course). This could be a business partner, friend, family member, significant other, or anyone else who you trust to keep you accountable. 

If you’d rather work with someone you don’t know as well, you can find accountability partners in Facebook groups. Find and join a few that relate to your business, and look for someone (or a few people!) who you can build a relationship with. Then you can be an accountability partner for them, too. We love a good, supportive community!

Write it Down

Writing down your goals makes them feel more real. They aren’t just a thought; you have them right in front of you. Better yet, put your goals in several areas of your office or workspace so you have a constant reminder of what you’re working towards. On mirrors, behind your computer, on your desk, and anywhere else where you’ll see them every day.

Have a Mix of Goals

It’s really helped me to have short-term goals and long-term goals. If you only have long-term goals, they don’t feel as attainable. Like, they’re so far away that you have time to procrastinate. On the other hand, if you only have short-term goals, you don’t have a clear vision for what you want to achieve in the long term. Have a mix of both. I like to scaffold my goals, which means that my short-term goals work toward the long-term goals.

Celebrate wins

Goal setting doesn’t have to be boring. Celebrate when you reach a goal! If you plan to reward yourself for hitting certain goals, you can post that next to the goals to keep you motivated, especially on days where it seems really hard to keep moving forward. Celebrate all wins - big and small. Everything you did to achieve your goal is worthy of celebrating. 

Business Goal Ideas

Sometimes it’s hard to think of goals - I struggle with it sometimes myself. Maybe you have a goal in mind (or too many), but you’re not sure how to get there. 

Here are a few templates you can customize to your goals: 

• I’m going to increase my revenue by % in [timeframe]

• I’m going to grow my [social media platform] following by # in [timeframe]

• I’m going to book # new clients at $X/month in [timeframe]

• I’m going to create # lead magnets per [week/month/quarter] in [timeframe]

• I’m going to post on [social media platform] X times per [week/month/quarter] in [timeframe]

• I’m going to send # emails per [week/month/quarter] in [timeframe]

Which goal are you going to set and achieve first? 

I’ll share a few of my goals for 2022.

• I’m going to post on Instagram at least once a week by the end of Q1. 

• I’m going to increase my revenue by at least $30K by the end of the year. 

• I’m going to hire a VA to help with admin tasks by the end of the year.

I hope this blog has inspired you to create a few smart, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound goals (see what I did there?) I want to support you along your journey! Make a post sharing your 2022 business goals on LinkedIn and tag me!

How to Check Your Unrealistic Expectations at the Door

We’ve all been there: you set a New Year’s Resolution or a goal throughout the year, only to get to November and December and realize that you have failed to live up to your own expectations. 

When we don’t live up to our own high standards, we feel bad. Like, unmotivated and questioning whether to keep writing bad. 

Have you ever felt this way? 

I know I have. 

Why do Writers Have Unrealistic Expectations? 

Writers are a special kind of people. I won’t claim that there’s only one way to be a writer, because I hate generalizations - they’re always untrue. 

Even when there are elements of fact, putting a whole group of people together like that takes the human uniqueness out of the equation, which is actually one of the most important parts of writing and being a writer. 

What I will claim is that most writers have a similar mentality when they set unrealistic expectations. 

They want to meet the expectations.

Writers set standards to help themselves grow and develop their craft. They want to be better, so they set their expectations high thinking they will be able to easily learn and be better. I’m all about growth mindset, but putting the pressure of unrealistic expectations on yourself will actually hinder your ability to grow as much as you want. 

Writers set standards to help themselves grow and develop their craft.

For example, who DOESN’T want to write a novel and have it be perfect on the first draft? How cool would that be? Just because we want it, doesn’t mean it’s realistic, though. 

They think they can meet the expectations.

Because we are on a journey to be better, and many writers are excellent learners, it stands to reason that we might think we can meet the unrealistic expectations. It’s one of those things we might find ourselves saying, “Oh, well I’m different than so-and-so who couldn’t do that” when in reality, we’re really not that different from so-and-so. 

Realistically, if you haven’t developed a regular writing routine, are you going to be able to write the next Great American Novel in the next 90 days? Probably not. You might be able to have a draft of a novel in that time, but it’s unlikely to become a canonical classic this year, if it even does within your lifetime.

They underestimate the amount of work involved in writing.

I have a lot of conversations about this when I’m teaching because many people are somehow under the impression that writing is easy and effortless. That some kind of divine inspiration makes the blank page suddenly transform into a perfectly edited book-length manuscript that publishers are clamoring for. 

If this is you, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but that’s not really how writing or publishing works. Sure, there are definitely writers who are inspired. I can vouch for this personally, as the premise of my book is based around one scene that I dreamed, alongside many of my own experiences. When I hear specific kinds of music, I do get inspired to write. 

Writing is hard work and it takes a lot of effort to produce something good!

Writing isn’t easy OR effortless, though. Writing is hard work and it takes a lot of effort to produce something good! I think the main reason writers fail to live up to their expectations is because they underestimate the amount of work it takes to not just write a draft, but also then edit and refine the ideas.

They’ve seen other writers do it, so they assume they can, too.

After underestimating the amount of work, writers also tend to compare their own progress to others when setting goals - especially if they know other writers who are producing a lot of material.  

There are prolific writers who seem to produce a book every 3-6 months. To be frank, I don’t read many writers who do this simply because I can’t keep up and most of the genres don’t interest me much. I will say that certain genres are more formulaic than others, so it may be easier to fill that kind of quota. For instance, mysteries and romances typically follow a pretty standard set of plot sequences.

This isn’t to undercut the amount of work in the least! But if you already know the genre you want to work on has to meet X, Y, & Z landmark scenes, then you can work on filling in the rest perhaps more quickly than developing a whole new world with multiple races of creatures with all different languages and customs.

Just because someone else is cranking out novels doesn’t mean that’s a realistic or even good expectation to have for yourself. Only you know how much you can do, and for many of us, it takes longer and we do less than we thought. On the bright side, many times when you’ve taken a long time to work on a piece, it’s very satisfying to see it completed!

They see writers on social media and feel the need to compete.

In a digital world where we have access to almost infinite information, resources, and connections to other people, it makes sense that we might fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others.

When we see what others are doing, we tend to raise our expectations, almost to compete with the writers we’re connected with online (even though most of us probably wouldn’t admit that).

Writers, in particular, tend to have a problem with this in the media and on social media. There are numerous ads claiming to have you writing a best-selling eBook in 30 days - heck, I’ve seen it promised in 14 days! There are even these weird little statements in commercials - I saw one the other day that was showing a string of excuses for not going out with friends because of acne & one of those was that she was “writing a book.” Um, what? 

Not to mention, there are many writers who produce a lot of work and therefore it always seems like they’re working on something shiny and new.

When we see what others are doing, we tend to raise our expectations, almost to compete with the writers we’re connected with online (even though most of us probably wouldn’t admit that). When we don’t live up to our newly raised standards, we feel like we’ve failed. 

How to Check Your Unrealistic Expectations at the Door (So You Can Actually Get on with Writing)

I’ll be the first to tell you that you should have high standards for yourself. I know I do, and I expect the people I work with to have them also. 

That being said, I don’t advocate for impossible standards. I’ve heard before that having higher expectations than you can reach helps you “strive for more” but honestly, in my experience, it really just makes you feel bad. And when you feel bad you don’t write, which is the opposite of what you want for your writing.

So here are some things that will help you check your unrealistic expectations at the door and get some real writing done.

1. Turn off all your media - I mean all of it. You have to stop comparing yourself to others. You also need to stop scrolling through social media and actually start typing or writing on the page. Do yourself a favor and log off of ALL socials and just be with your writing for a little while.

2. Assess your writing & progress honestly (but not critically). The only way you can really grow and be better is by being honest about where you are right now. You don’t have to share it, but you do have to acknowledge it so you can move forward. This doesn’t mean you need to say, “Oh, I suck at having a writing routine” - but perhaps acknowledging, “I need to work on developing a stronger writing routine.” You’ll be amazed how positive & honest self-talk improves your writing life. 

3. Set 1-2 smaller goals you know you can achieve according to how YOU write. Since you’re not on social media, and you’ve had an honest reflection of your writing, you can now set small achievable goals to help boost your writing confidence and get you moving forward. For example, in my own creative writing practices, I set a goal to write one section of my book a week. I know I wouldn’t keep up with it daily, but I find that usually one section a week is manageable.

4. Set a loftier goal to work on long-term. As you start to set and reach smaller goals, you’ll also need to set a bigger goal to work on long-term. This could be about when you’ll complete your manuscript or when you’ll have editing done. Whatever it is that would be a big next step for you that you don’t think you’d achieve in the next week or two. As an example, this year I set a goal to finish the rough draft of my book by the end of the year. It was a big goal, but one that I knew that I could work on with smaller steps.

5. Look at all of your goals each and every day. Repetition is your friend. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but looking at those goals written down every single day will greatly improve your mindset and ability to achieve those expectations you set for yourself. You can also write them down daily as affirmations. I do both. I have affirmations that I write down in my morning pages and a positive note for myself that I read every night before bed. It’s changed everything for me!

6. Take steps to make progress on your goals. The main way to meet your expectations is by taking action. Start with baby steps and use your small goals to help you move forward. Remember, progress is progress, even if it’s small! Keep taking those steps forward toward your goals every chance you can.

7. When you reach your goals, even the small ones, give yourself a reward. Then set a new goal to replace it. I know I love a good reward, and I’ll bet you do, too! When you work hard and reach those smaller goals, give yourself a little reward for your efforts. Things like a trip to Target (I love the dollar section) or a new book from your favorite author are perfect to keep you motivated and on track. When you’ve celebrated, set yourself another goal and move forward again!

Next Steps

There are a lot of reasons writers have unrealistic expectations for themselves, whether it’s because of comparisons with others or just plain old excitement. These unrealistic expectations can be a real nuisance for progress, though! 

It’s time to tackle your unrealistic expectations and get on with your writing. Here’s what you can start with:

1. Turn off your news, socials, and get off Google. Just be alone with your music and your paper. 

2. Take an honest look at your writing. If you don’t have any writing yet, consider your process and why you haven’t started writing yet. Be honest, but not critical. Your inner critic doesn’t need a say in this conversation.

3. Set your goals. Think about what you could do this week and this month. What’s realistic for you? You can even use this free worksheet to help you!

4. Work on those goals & start seeing progress! Do the work, even if it’s just a little at a time. A half hour here, a late-night writing session there - whatever works into your writing process. Make time and effort and you’ll start to see progress. 

5. Get help being accountable (or setting goals if you’re stuck or overwhelmed!) If you need help setting goals or being accountable, let’s chat. I work with writers all the time on goal-setting and helping them stay on track. Read more about it here.
   

My challenge to you is to look your unrealistic writing expectation in the face today and tell it you’ve had enough and that you’re ready to write. 

Have you faced unrealistic expectations before? Overcome writing fears about not living up to expectations? Or maybe have some other inspirational tips for writers who need a little positive boost? I’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing.