Category Archives: goals

January 07, 2013   Jane   advice, goals, holidays, Jane  
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Resolutions

It’s a new year, so what else would I write about but New Year’s resolutions?

I know, I know – New Year’s resolutions sound  soooo  boring, but I have found that making them, and checking them monthly and keeping them in mind is very important to moving forward in life and in work.

Putting together a written list—and I do think these should be written down in order to cement them in our minds—takes time and it should take thoughtfulness.  What do we want to achieve this year, health wise, relationship wise, business wise and in our efforts to give back to the universe?

A few of my clients this week presented me with their lists of what they wanted to achieve in their book publishing careers this year, and I am so happy to have these.  It will help me to focus my efforts in helping them.  In fact, I plan to encourage as many of the authors I work with as possible to do the same thing in the coming weeks (a goal should be to have all New Year’s resolutions completed by no later than the middle of January, I think).

And of course, I have done my own set of resolutions in all of the above areas.  I plan to review them very regularly and refine them when necessary (resolutions should be as specific as possible, I find).  Then at the end of the year, I will do an overall evaluation of how  I’ve done in each area, and that will enable me to put together next year’s resolutions that much more easily.

So, what do you think of this whole idea of setting New Year’s Resolutions?  Do you plan to do them for yourself?  I am eager to know your thoughts on the subject.

August 31, 2012   Rachel   goals, hypothetical, Rachel S.  
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Magical things are afoot.

In case you weren’t aware (and I wasn’t until just yesterday), we’re going to have a blue moon tonight. There are actually a couple of definitions about what a blue moon really is, but the most commonly accepted refers to the rare occurrence when there are two full moons in on month. So rare that the next one won’t happen until 2018!

Full moons are, of course, already overloaded with folklore and superstition—crime rates going up, babies being born, accidents and, obviously, werewolves. But what about a blue moon? Being a vaguely superstitious kind of person, I had to do some poking around and supposedly any plans you make under a blue moon are fated to come true. Sowing the seeds of long-term goals during a blue moon are meant to be particularly fruitful, though erratic.

Regardless, there’s a reason people use the phrase “once in a blue moon,” and I think that tonight is the perfect time to set some goals for yourself, creativity and writing-wise. Even if it is all just superstition, sitting down and actually coming up with a comprehensive, achievable scenario for your book’s progress towards completion, can only help,  right? Real or imagined, use the rarity of tonight’s occurrence to make some concrete plans and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be rewarded tenfold.

August 20, 2012   Jane   advice, goals, Jane  
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Establishing goals

I used to hate thinking about and writing down goals, probably because when I first had to do them it was as part of a budget plan I was assigned to create annually when I was a Publisher. That all changed when I first became an agent, though. One of the very first authors I worked with was writing an unusual book on achieving one’s dreams. In order to do that, the author advised, you had to write down ten goals that you were reaching for – things you never thought you would achieve. He demanded that I as the agent on the project go through this exercise just as a reader would. At the time, I was a single mother of a young daughter beginning a new career and not in the mood for dreaming about anything. But I went along and wrote down things I just knew would never happen: increase my gross book sales threefold by the end of the year (in terms of dollars); meet and marry the love of my life within the next two years; buy a house in the next three years; have another child in the next five years…. And every week, he demanded that I review my goals.

Well, the upshot is that I never sold that book (that actually wasn’t one of my goals). But, incredibly, I did achieve every other goal, and within the time period I had laid out. I did sell that amount in advances and more; I did meet the love of my life and we are about to celebrate our twenty-fourth wedding anniversary; I did buy that house in the country; and my handsome son has just turned 20.

So, when I began my own company, I asked everyone I worked with to set short term goals each quarter; these were almost wishes – they should be reaches – and they should be reviewed monthly. Recently, Miriam told me that she has always hated doing goals “with the burning intensity of a thousand suns,” but she has become a believer because the process really does work.

I have now begun asking my newer clients what their goals and wishes are. It’s an exercise that is energizing many of them and they are realizing that setting short term goals enables them to strategize about their entire career.

I wonder whether you set goals for yourself already. And, if not, don’t you think you might begin now?