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How to Write a Goal

Tips for Goal-Setting

  • Why should I write down my goals?
  • What types of goals should I set?
  • Is there a formula to follow?

Challenge Yourself

Here are three straightforward goals for these lessons:

  1. My goal is to finish all five lessons.
  2. My goal is to get over my writer’s block.
  3. My goal is to establish a regular writing practice.

These generic goals for Finding Your First-Person Voice are fine, as far as they go. You’re welcome to use them for your own three goals. However, I encourage you to list more personally specific goals that hold you accountable.

Research indicates the value of writing down your goals.

Past and current research indicates the value of setting goals, especially when you write them down.[1] Some neuroscience studies point to the way effective goal-setting can alter the brain, suggesting that goals with emotional resonance and which challenge you have the most impact on performance.[2]

A Mix of Goals

When it comes to setting personal goals, you’re the best judge. As you’ll see from examples in the box below, the goals writers set for themselves can be as various as their writing projects or their level of experience.

If you’re feeling stuck, however, I’ve provided a formula to help you come up with three personal goals. My “Goal Map” emphasizes a mix of three types:

Project goals are specific and time-based. They set deadlines for finishing a current or ongoing project.

Emotional goals focus on overcoming feelings that block your writing or interfere with personal exploration. It helps to be specific here, too.

Achievement goals highlight larger aims for writing and publishing, such as completing a story or book. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

In setting your goals, I suggest including one of each type. But if you list, say, three emotional goals, you have my blessing. Personal storytelling is motivated by many things: finding meaning, wanting to be a writer, supporting your community. You really are the best judge of what you want to accomplish.

 

GOAL MAP

Try this formula for setting three goals:

  1. Project goal
  2. Emotional goal
  3. Achievement goal

Fill in the sentence map:

  1. My project goal is to spend [how much time?] to [fill in current project] by [fill in deadline].
  2. My emotional goal is to [do what?] in order to [fill in your emotional block].
  3. My achievement goal is to write [fill in your achievement focus].

Examples:

  1. My project goal is to spend four weeks to complete these lessons by July 31.
  2. My emotional goal is to write for 20 minutes every morning in order to get over my intense fear of failure.
  3. My achievement goal is to finish at least one story this year.

∞∞∞

  1. My project goal is to spend the next two months researching so I can revise the first draft of my memoir by Labor Day.
  2. My emotional goal is to interview a favorite family member in order to help with my anxiety about revealing too much.
  3. My achievement goal is to publish my memoir as a book.

 

  1. Psychology professor Gail Matthews found that participants in a 2007 study who wrote down their goals for what they wanted to accomplish in the next four weeks reported significantly more achievement than those who didn't. (If they provided weekly progress reports to a friend, they reported even more success.) See "Study Focuses on Strategies for Achieving Goals, Resolutions," Dominican University of California press release by Sarah Gardner and Dave Albee (2015). A summary by Gail Matthews provides more details. ↵
  2. Two research summaries with study links: (1) "What Goal-Setting Does to Your Brain and Why It's Spectacularly Effective" by Geoffrey James, Inc., October 23, 2019; and (2) "The Science of Goals," The Bucket List Journal. ↵

License

Lessons for Life: Finding Your First-Person Voice Copyright © 2023 by Martha Nichols. All Rights Reserved.

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