I’m an eclectic writer – from poetry to children’s stories, scientific papers to memoir- but what I have trouble doing is finishing pieces to a quality I am proud of…or if I’m really honest – finishing pieces….like this post for example, its been sitting as a draft since January (which made me laugh today when I realised)…

Over the last eight years, I’ve been overly ambitious in what I want to create, and I’ve been journaling about why that is. Roll in 2026 and I decided to try something new. When it comes to my creative goals, I decided to have more focus because….

So instead of having too many writing projects on the go at once, I decided each month to set myself only three creative goals. I wrote them on the 4th of January on page 4 of my 33rd journal.

..and it has been tremendously enlightening and I’ve learnt something new about goal setting and me.

You’ve heard of SMART goals where each letter starts for something.

I think we don’t need to be SMART, we need to be SMARTER where the E & R are two extra steps.

Enthusiasm = Are you excited and motivated to achieve the goal?

Rewarding = Will the achievement satisfy you beyond the money or recognition?

Instead of just setting goals for the sake of setting them, choosing only three goals has given me space to pause and really question why I’m setting the goal.

Having spent my entire life driven by achievement now I’m questioning what success looks like for me & how I want to spend my time & energy. I won’t lie, its uncomfortable, but I need time to let that uncomfortable uncertainty be there for awhile.

I’ll continue to set three creative goals per month, but I’m going to pay close attention to the spaces in between the achievements and I’ll see what happens.

And Hallelujah, I’ve finally finished & posted 🙂