Internet Writing :: Inklit.com

Posted by John Lockwood on March 12th, 2008

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Pick up any book about writing or read any blog about writing and you’ll read the same thing over and over again:  It’s important to write often, and it’s important to go fast.

One of the reasons that setting goals is so important is that you’ll end up further ahead of where you would have otherwise.  In Setting Writing Goals, Making Room for the Good Stuff I talked about the importance of setting goals as a way of making time for the ones that really matter, yet the very next day I noticed that I’d redefined the ones that mattered.  Still, what I noticed in the process of setting goals was that I wrote more than I would have otherwise, even though my writing goals were fairly modest.  This principle is time honored, and was best expressed in Browning’s "Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?"

The same principle applies to non-writing activities, to be sure, such as promoting one’s web site.  Shooting for more than I really think I can do (in my heart of underestimating-myself-hearts) is the principle behind trying to get 101 subscribers in 30 days.  How many do I think I would have had at the end of thirty days if I didn’t run this contest?  Oh, I don’t know, maybe fifteen.  How many do I really think I’ll get?  Well, I don’t know.  But let’s say I only get fifty.  That’s still ahead of where I would have been otherwise.

So setting goals is an important productivity tool in the best of times.  But what I’ve found is that it’s even more important to have goals in place when conditions are unfavorable.  Today, for example, there were several had-to-be-done tasks that knew were going to wreak havoc with the overall schedule, so I had to do two important things.  First, I had to revise the goals downward because I knew that otherwise I was just kidding myself completely.  But secondly, and more importantly, I had to live up to the goals I finally did set.

Another way to say all of this is that setting goals help you go further when you succeed, but equally as important, it helps you lose less ground when you fail. 

This is true whether you’re writing online, or learning to speak French, or whatever it is you’re trying to do.

The day will go by whether you move in a direction or not.

If you’re looking to make money writing online, when all else fails, write something online.