Are you being smart while you're sheltering in?

Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice In Wonderland, perfectly illustrates the importance of goal setting during an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

Alice asks, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

“I don’t much care where—“

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go, so long as you get somewhere.”

Gettng somewhere may have been okay for Alice, but just getting somewhere isn’t enough of a goal if you’re serious about writing your book while you're sheltering-in. You will need concrete and specific goals for how you plan to get there. In an article by Heather Kreke called Setting S.M.A.R. T goals, she challenges writers to use the following strategy to help them achieve their writing goals:

Specific: Know what you want. “I want to write” is too broad. Do you want to write a non-fiction book, a novel, a devotional, or an article? Do you want to write 300 or 30,000 words?

Measurable: Set wirting goals that will produce results you can see. Measure your progress in daily, weekly or monthly word counts.

Attainable: “I will write 10,000 words a day,” is not likely attainable. Make your goals reasonable. When you accomplish them, you will feel the excitement. If you set the bar too high you may end up being discouraged.

Realistic: Dreaming big is good. But when you set goals to obtain those dreams, keep a firm grasp on reality. Know your limits. Know when to ask for help.

Timely: Set or accept only reasonable deadlines, given your other commitments. Too soon and you’ll be stressed. Too long and you’ll procrastinate.

Are you still having to shelter-in today? Then you can accomplish your writing goals as long as you're being smart!

Sharing the journey,

Jeaninne