New year, new resolutions

On the first of January we traditionally make our resolutions for the year ahead.  We need to set writing goals for the year too.

What gets measured gets done, the saying goes, and setting goals signals to your conscious and subconscious that this is what you want to achieve this year.

Some people advocate setting SMART goals - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timed - but I think this restricts us too much.  It brings left-brain logic into our creative world.

Dream big. It takes as much energy to create a big dream as a small one, so you might as well dream big.  The value of dreaming big is that it stretches your mind to accept those possibilities.  The reason most lottery winners are broke again within a few years of their big win is because their minds couldn't handle being rich,

So to be rich as a writer we have to train our minds to accept that idea, to know what it feels likes to sell a million books or two.  The tricky part is that we have to feel like a million-seller before we achieve it in reality.  But if we do, then watch out.  The brain hates cognitive dissonance, i.e. reality not matching  what we tell it, and it sets out to make our internal picture and our real world situation match.

So this year when you're doing your resolutions dream big, and aim for success in 2014.