Why do I never meet my writing goal?

Hey all,

So it has been a reflective January for me so far and that includes me thinking about the fact that I haven’t met my yearly writing goal for 5 years now. That is a really depressing fact and it makes me quite sad to even admit that to you all. But I know I cannot be alone!

Every year I see so many posts about yearly writing goals and I never really see people follow up and say ‘yes I completed my goal!’ so that leads me to believe that not many of us actually meet the lofty goals we set in January. But why?

Now I know that everyone’s writing journey and process are completely unique and my experience will be very different to a lot of other people but here are my top 5 reasons I have recognised as being why I never meet the goals!

1. Lack of motivation
   So at the beginning of the year I always tend to meet my monthly writing goals towards my yearly goal, but by April/ May I start to burn out and struggle to come up a reason for writing. This is the main inspiration for this short collection of posts about why I got in to writing and what it means to me, to give me something to look at to stop me from stopping.
2. Distractions
   Whenever I sit down to write I find myself browsing Instagram or Facebook and next thing I know my writing time has gone and I have to get on with other things.
3. Feeling overwhelmed
   I have always set some lofty goals when it comes to my writing, whether it is to completely write a book, edit and publish it in one year (why, why would I do this to myself?). So when it gets to June/ July, I look at how much I have left to do and it feels like I will never get there and it really gets me down.
4. Hobbies
   I am a creative person and this is not just on the writing front, I love to create with my hands too and this means that sometimes I don’t feel like writing and I want to stitch or crochet.
5. Lack of discipline
   This seems like a really big one to me, I have noticed that I struggle to make myself write every day. This is even worse when I have been at work all day and all I want to do is cuddle on the sofa with the puppies and nap. I need to develop a writing habit that works for me and not just ‘write every day’.

So, have you failed to meet your writing aim for 2018? Sit and think for a minute and come up with your own list of reasons why. I know that this is helping me think of how to change my attitude and writing to try and meet my aims for this year.

Thanks for stopping by,

Helen