Hi Everybody, Jackson here. As you can see, I’m easily distracted. It’s hard to focus on one thing at a time. I hear my human mom, Kelly complain about this all the time. She says one way to remain focused is by setting goals.

Whatever you’re into, for us it’s writing, you need to have some sort of plan. You don’t take a trip without at least a basic idea of where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. Same with writing. I laughed at Mom at first, and thought having goals is just silly. I’ll only get depressed if I don’t reach them. Well, guess what? That’s poppycock. (Aren’t you impressed with my use of that really big word?) You ARE?? Goal achieved. See how easy that is? I set a goal to impress you with my doggy brain, and it worked.

I’m leading you down this path to explain how setting goals will help you as a writer. Set a goal to write every day. Even if it’s just in your journal, write something every day. If you’re working on a book, set a word goal for the day. Keep it achievable so you don’t get discouraged. Say….1500 words a day. If you manage to stick to your goal you can write a 67,000 word novel in 44 days! Isn’t that crazy?

If that’s working for you, bump it up a notch. Set a goal for how many books or short stories you’d like to release this year. Keep track on your phone or a white board. Whatever works best for you. My mom likes to see her progress displayed larger than life, so she has this big white board in her office. She keeps track of all her open projects.

Don’t worry if you don’t reach a goal. Learn from the lack of achieving it. Apply those learnings to your next goal. We all have stuff in life, like squirrels, that distract us from our goals. Deal with them, then refocus back on what you want to do. I’m betting you’ll find yourself achieving more than you realize.

Gotta go for now. Stay focused and goal oriented. Now where’s my bone?