Goal!

Big shock - Dakota has a strange habit when it comes to goal setting. (When aren't I strange, honestly.) Most anyone will tell you that it is best to set reasonable and reachable goals. Break large goals down into managable ones so you don't get discouraged.

I don't do this.

I prefer LARGE goals. Things like "Quit my job and be a full time writer." Or maybe "Write five 50k+ novels this year." "Relearn German...all of it."

Large goals are good. Tackling the big picture makes me feel like I have a purpose, I am striving for something. If I don't reach the goal immediately that's okay, it carries over. There is no time limit on my goals.

When I told people I would get a publisher by the end of 2007 people laughed at me. Friends told me I was crazy. They had watched me struggle for years and years with the industry and knew from seeing me go through hell that it's a tough business. But I knew I was finally ready. I knew that it was my time. And poof. Not only did I receive a contract in 2007, by the end of 2008 I found myself a multi-published author with a pretty decent internet presence.

So when I told the Mr. I would be quitting my job to be a full time writer in the next two years, he did not laugh. He is actually being quite supportive of me, telling me to do it now. (I think he may be kidding so the day job remains.)

Large goals are great. It's nice to look on the horizon and see that large change can happen. Now, I am not so cavalier with my goals as to say I will lose 40 pounds by RT. I know what I honestly could accomplish and what is overly farfetched. So a big part of large goals is the ability to meet them eventually.

Don't get me wrong, small goals are good too. I have those as well, "Finish the story I'm working on now." "Outline this book." Things like that. But I honestly think of those more as tasks that need to be done rather than goals. "Write 10 pages a day," is a job, we're writers. We should strive to hit numbers like that. But again, I don't count that as a goal. That is just something that needs to be done, a task on the calendar.

So I guess it's whatever you need to do to accomplish the things you really want. If breaking a large goal into manageable pieces helps you reach it then by all means, use my hatchet. As long as everyone is keeping their eyes on the end result how you get there is just backstory.

XoXoXo
Dakota Rebel