Giving Myself Homework

I am inaugurating this blog with a post on the most effective — and difficult — thing I’ve been striving for in recent years: self-discipline.

I’ve always been reliable and disciplined in many ways. My report cards were a boring collection of A’s, I was a dependable (albeit at times manipulative) older sister, and I made it through high school and college relatively unscathed. But because writing was something I had loved since childhood, I was under the impression that in this area, I didn’t need self-discipline. What I love should come naturally, I thought.

I eventually realized the opposite was true.  As I grew older, my creative writing was unconsciously pushed farther and farther toward the bottom of my priorities. It was not until writing a thesis during my senior year of university that I realized I needed a schedule—a writing routine. For my thesis project, the self-discipline and work paid off enormously. But was I capable of applying these to my creative writing?

Since moving to Thailand, I have been striving to balance my freelance work, my creative writing, and everything else that makes up my life here. This struggle has fluctuated constantly, spawning several periods of clear productivity and many others that lagged.

I am now in the process of writing down a set of measurable goals, mostly related to writing. I want to be held accountable, and I hope that sharing my intentions with you will push me in that direction. My next post will give you a better idea of my specific goals, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear any feedback.

• “How to Set SMART Writing Goals” by Dustin Wax
• “Write Your Own Reality – Business Plans for Writers” by Devon Ellington

Tagged as: creative, goals, Writing