I believe in setting goals because they motivate me to get things done. If I don’t have a goal in mind, my mind wanders – a lot. I’m interested in so many things it is easy to get distracted into one thing, then another, until I can’t remember what it was I wanted to do with my time.
Having goals inspires me to focus. That’s the necessary ingredient for making progress. Focus is needed to create something worth having.
I’ve noticed that artists that specialize have extremely impressive portfolios. I think I’ve mentioned this before. For example, Susan Herbert specialized in creating cat art. Each cat is fully dressed and many represent famous people in history. I’m impressed with her work because she got an idea that nobody else had, and she worked at making that one kind of art for many years. She was focused and her portfolio shows it.
At this point I’m sorry I haven’t ever been that focused! I’m well into my senior years now and still spread my energies out into too many different niches. I need to stop that, and gather my humble resources into one good niche.
It looks like my work on children’s and young adult novels would be the best niche to focus on. I mean, fifty years after I pass away, what will people remember me for? Will it be for all the things I’ve written online? Or is it more likely to be the novels I wrote? Well, hopefully I’ll get to publish most of those novels within the next few years. I need to stop worrying about whether I can write books for adults and accept that writing for children and teens is what I’m here for.
This may seem too structured to many of you, but for me it is the way to stay organized with my time, and focused. Otherwise, I’m hopeless. This is the home of the wandering mind.
This article was originally published on this blog on January 9, 2012.
Image by Tumisu@Pixabay
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