I don’t know about you, but my inbox these days is flooded with newsletters with headlines like “Do this before you set goals for 2023!” or “Jumpstart Your 2023!” Personally, I love this time of year as a chance to do a year-in-review assessment coupled with goal-setting for the new year. But this year, I’m taking a different look at things.

In October, I offered a session at the DFW Writers’ Conference on Next Level Career Planning for creatives. When I asked for audience feedback on the types of goals they set for themselves, I got some very interesting responses. Most of them set production goals: that is, complete X many projects in a year. None of them set income goals. And very few set professional development goals: craft skills to learn or improve, or conferences or networking events to attend.

The presentation I gave was geared toward helping them to see that you need to work at all of these in order to make progress in your creative career. And that’s the key word I want to focus on in this two-part goal-setting series: “work.”

This month, because we are all in the mindset of setting goals and resolutions for the new year, I’ll share how I’m doing things differently in the hopes that it helps you too. And next month, I’ll offer some thoughts on what I’m going to call finding “synergy” in creative work: exploring the process and possibility of balancing multiple projects at once.

But first, goal-setting. Yes, I’m setting goals this year, and you should too! But it can’t stop there. We need to focus on setting up the systems we need to support those goals. Let’s look at why you might want to take a systems-focused approach to goal-setting for 2023.

Systems and Goals

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says that we rise to the level of our goals but fall to the level of our systems. This means that while we aspire to reach terrific heights with the goals we set, we are only ever going to make as much progress as our systems support.

A “system” is another way of saying “daily habits” – it’s the process you follow each and every day connected to that aspect of your life. So, when you think about it, his statement makes a lot of sense.

Let’s say I set a goal of being able to run a half marathon race by September 16, 2023. I feel great about this goal. It’s got all the characteristics of a SMART goal: it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. I’ve got the exact distance I want to run, I’ve got 9 months to train for it (so achievable given my current level of fitness), it’s relevant to my overall health goals, and it’s got a deadline. Awesome!

But let’s go back to the word “achievable” for a second. I said I’ve got 9 months to train for this, and given where I’m at in my running journey, that’s plenty of time to get ready. And it is… if I actually train for it every week.

According to the research, only 9% of people who set New Year’s resolutions actually keep them, and most people give up on their goals by the end of January. Why is that?

Life is like a story in this respect. We’re super excited in Act I. We can’t wait to get to Act III. We’ve got momentum behind us when we start, and we can visualize the end goal. And then there’s Act II: the messy middle where so many stories and New Year’s resolutions wither and die because there is no plan to see them through.

That’s the systems part of goal-setting that we so often neglect. We set a big goal for ourselves, but then we don’t take the next step and break it down into monthly, weekly, and daily habits that will move us steadily toward that goal.

I love what Marie Forleo says about assessing your plans and projects for the new year. She says that we should look at our big huge list of all the things we want to do and create and ask ourselves, “Who will I need to become to make this happen?”

It’s a fantastic question, and it gets to the real heart of the matter. Remember Aristotle’s definition of character in Poetics? He says that character is the habit of moral choice when the choice isn’t obvious. Habit and choice are the keywords here. According to Aristotle, we are our choices. And our choices are conditioned by our habits.

When we set a goal, we’re setting a future version of ourselves into motion. We’re asking ourselves to evolve, to be transformed. But transformation requires a process. It requires systems: those daily habits that, ever so gradually, shape us into who we are meant to be.

Okay, that got really deep and metaphysical – so let’s take it back to the practical level to see how this works. Let’s look at two goals you might want to set this year for your creative career and how to decide what systems you need in place to support them.

Goal #1: Creative Production

I’m guessing that if you’re a creative, you want to make things this year. The first thing we should do is assess what we’ve produced this past year and how it’s moved the needle for us in our career. Here are some questions to ask without judging yourself:

1. How many projects did I want to complete this past year? How many actually got done?
2. What is the status of those projects now? (For example, are you submitting to contests, are they being read by people in the industry for notes or consideration?)
3. What did this project teach me? How did it help me grow and develop as an artist?

Now that we’ve got a basic understanding of where we are, it’s time to look forward.

Let’s say we set a goal of completing a feature script and a TV drama pilot script this year. Based on what we know about our writing process, let’s say we’re looking at 6-8 months on the feature and 2-3 months on the pilot. So, if we work fast and the projects come together nicely, we might have time to start (and even finish) a third script by the end of the year. But if we need extra time on rewrites, we’ve got a bit of slack built in.

That’s a solid goal, but we should dive a bit deeper. Consider where those scripts are headed when you’re done and how you want to grow as a writer through these projects. Knowing your why for each project is part of being strategic in your work, and it’s also how you maintain your process over the long haul.

Once we’ve established the what and the why, it’s time to get into the systems: the how. Map out your current process. If you’re not sure what your process is, try these questions:

1. How often do you write, and for how long? How many pages, on average, can you complete in that time?
2. On average, how many rewrites do you do for each project? How long does each round take?
3. How much time do you spend on research and prewriting?
4. Do your projects usually take you longer to complete than you anticipate? Why? Do they take you less time than you anticipate? Why?

Recognize that every project is different and unique in its development and its demands, but nevertheless, you should have a general production process that you follow time and time again.

Now that you know what you usually do, you must consider whether that process will serve your new production goal. If not, what needs to change? When you think about changing your process, take it one step further (I promise you will thank me later if you do this!).

Think about what would prevent you from following through on your new routine. For example, if you always listen to music when you write, and misplaced or dead headphones would derail your session, make sure you find your headphones and charge them before it’s time to sit down and write.

The more you can anticipate obstacles and figure out how to set yourself up for success ahead of time, the more likely you’ll be to stick with the new routine.

If this sounds like a lot more work than just daydreaming about Future You signing with representation or selling your first project, it is. But – here’s the hard truth – this is also one of the best ways to set yourself up to be one of the 9% who makes your dreams a reality.

Goal #2: Replace Day Job Income

If you are looking to eventually make your creative work lucrative enough to quit your day job, this is a huge area to consider. But remember what I said about the attendees at my session not setting income goals for their creative work? So many of us dream about being able to one day replace our income with our writing or our creative work, but it stays a dream because we don’t have an actionable plan to get us there.

Like Goal #1, the first step here has to be an assessment. Did any of your creative endeavors make money last year? If so, which ones? Again, there’s no judgment here – it’s just an honest appraisal of the state of things. The other assessment you need to make is your current income and expenses. If your goal is ultimately to replace your day job fully, there’s going to be a dollars-and-cents number you’ll need to hit.

Once you finish your assessment, maybe you decide that your goal this year is just to start the process of replacing your income. You can approach this in a couple of different ways. You could set a monthly income goal for yourself (“Bring in $500/month”) or as a percentage increase (“I want to increase my creative income by 15% this year”).

Once again, these are great goals. But now we need to establish the how: the systems that chart the course from where we are now to that destination. What actions do we need to take on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to hit that goal?

These actions will very likely be tied intimately to your creative production goals. But they will probably also involve marketing and networking activities. Do you have a routine–a system–that will support these efforts? Is it reliable and consistent? Do you have a process for assessing your results regularly?

If you need to make changes to an existing system, what changes will you make, and how will you measure the results? What obstacles do you anticipate, and how could you set yourself up for success before you start?

Set the Goal, Map the System

Each goal you set for yourself is going to follow this same process. You’ll need to assess where you are, set the goal, and then map out the system that will get you there. This goes for “hard goals” (ones that have numbers attached, like the production or income goals we’ve discussed) and for “soft goals” like skill building or networking.

These “soft goals” will be tied to daily or weekly practices like reading books or scripts or watching movies and shows in your genre, taking classes, attending conferences or workshops, working through writing exercises, or being more intentional about using social media, your local writing groups, or the available resources on Stage 32.

As you work through your goal-setting for the new year, don’t forget to take a long, hard look at your daily habits and practices. Make sure you know how to best support yourself on the journey to achieving your goals so that you can move those creative dreams off your vision board and into your real life.

Next month, I’ll share some thoughts about synergy and focus: establishing a project development cycle that allows you to handle multiple projects at the same time while maintaining your focus so that you can put your best work out into the world.

Happy goal setting and systems mapping, and have a very happy New Year!

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