The birthday status report

Goals are whatever; habits and actions make goals happen

Today is my birthday. And, each year, to honor that, I write myself something between a letter and a status report, an accounting of sorts, of the previous year, and a forecast of habits in the year ahead.

But, there’s no need to wait until your birthday to do the same.

Start by making an accounting of the last year of your writing— did you write more than you hoped? Less? Why? What did you write? What did you want to write instead? What else did you hope to write? What took up the largest amount of time that you weren’t writing? Then, look ahead, and rather than setting goals, write the small, regular habits that you plan to bring into your life in the year ahead so that your next letter/report is more to your liking.

Because, look, “write a novel” can be on your to-do list all you like, but until you do small, incremental things like “write two pages a day,” it’s going to stay on your list. The goal matters less than the decisions you’re making each day to get there.

Anyway, when you have finished to your satisfaction, put those daily tasks on your calendar so you can theoretically do them and turn them into regular habits, then mark the date for a year from now or six months from now, or whatever time from now, to do it again to keep yourself on track.