At the end of my senior year in college, I thought I was a few years away from publishing my first book. It was one of my personal goals I was set on accomplishing. I just turned in an Honors paper for my major that also doubled as an outline for a book. I planned to write a book about my family’s experiences as immigrants from El Salvador. I had the motivation, the focus, and a solid start. I was sure I would get the book done in no time.
Over 13 years later and I still don’t have a published book. What happened?
Barriers to Reaching Your Personal Goals
After I graduated college, I started working as an 8th-grade science teacher. I told myself I would continue with my book when I had some free time. Then, I imagine the same things that happen to most people happened to me – life got in the way. I never felt like I had the right type of free time to spend on writing my book. You see, I had free time that I used to get some of my teaching work done, to relax and have fun, and to do other part-time work. SomehowI never found the right free time to work on my book, or at least that’s what it felt like.
In reality, I had mentally set myself up for failure. Whenever I thought about writing the book, I felt like I didn’t have enough time to do it justice. It was overwhelming to think about, so I kept putting it off. I didn’t have this issue with assignments I had at work. I quickly realized that I regularly prioritized work goals over personal goals.
Keys to Reaching Your Personal Goals
Recently, I made some changes to my approach, and I’m now closer than ever to publishing not just one, but two books. If you have any personal goals that you haven’t made any progress on, try what worked for me:
Create a daily habit.
If you focus on working for a certain amount of time every day, eventually, it will be weird if you don’t do it. Once you create that habit, you give yourself an extra boost. But it takes a lot of dedicated work to make it happen.
Give it a time limit.
Don’t try to write a certain amount every day. Give yourself a daily time limit. For example, you can aim to spend no more than 30 minutes to an hour writing every day. This makes it easier to pause and think because you’re not aiming for a certain amount of words every day.
Just get started.
The blank page is my worst enemy. What’s helped me is getting things down, no matter how good it is. The crazy thing is that a quick start with an awful first draft is more energizing than a slow start with a great first draft.
Produce weekly.
Make it a goal to finish a realistic product every week. This could be something like a blog post or a resource. If you feel like doing more, then go for it! If you don’t, it’s OK because you have already met your goal.
Lean into energy.
If you start to feel energized by the work you’re completing, keep going. Some of the best creators know when to go all in and when to take it easy. Keep an eye on your energy and enthusiasm to see when you should go for it.
If you have a goal you have wanted to accomplish for a while, this is your sign to get started!
