Happy New Year 2025!

It's all about new year, new writing goals and new motivation

Hello and welcome to the Writing Story, and wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year ahead.

It’s a brand new year. It’s 2025. Still can’t believe it’s true but I checked and rechecked and it is the right year. 2025….

You may take a moment to digest this… and I’m here standing with you in solidarity…

Okay, now that we are in a new year, you know what that means, it’s time to get a head start on the new year goals. It’s always fun to make them. But after a couple of months, well, not so much.

But trust me that’s not because we are inconsistent or lazy, but rather we failed at goal planning, and planning well. What we forget to take into account are all the external factors that might affect our ability to stick to our goals, and make room for change and growth and most importantly, to be kind to ourselves.

So here are a few tips to make your new year goals…

Goal Accountability

Improper accountability is one of the major reasons that makes one lose interest in pursuing their goals. If there are no ways to quantitatively determine the completion of a goal, then how can we know if we accomplished it at all? The feeling of accomplishment is what provides the motivation to keep going and without a path forward, the motivation just fizzles away into the mist.

So instead of setting a goal about writing a book, set a work count goal instead. Numbers are definable, easily perceived and provide excellent metrics.

Break it down

Creating a goal that seems unachievable can be a big deterrent. It’s like doing all the work for no progress while the end is too far away. Breaking down a large goal into smaller chunks that can be easily achieved is the way to go. Better if you can add a little celebratory act at the end of each small achievement. Could be anything, a chocolate square, a glass of wine, half an hour playing Mario or whatever else motivates you.

Be Kind

We all know that as the days roll by, the goals are going to sometimes take a backseat. Life sometimes throws curve balls at us and derails our well laid plans. And that is when the imposter syndrome kicks in, when we fail to cross the items on the To Do list. But it doesn’t need to be. I don’t remember where I heard it, but it said.

Sometimes we are all going to drop the ball. It’s just how it is. Life happens. But that’s when we need to be most kind to ourselves.

We have to remember to be kind to ourselves and let us learn from our mistakes and not take things to heart.

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I shared my goals for substack notes some time back, and thought I’d share here too.

Also, I started a thread for writers to share their 2025 goals. If you have any to share publicly for accountability, go ahead. Or you may comment below.

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That’s all for today.

Thanks for reading The Writer Story. You can find me on social media - Twitter/X - @authoranima or Instagram - @authoranima or Bluesky - @authoranima.bsky.social

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Until next time,

~Toodle-oo~