I’ve been thinking about motivation a lot, and I recently spoke about the role of goal setting.
Today I saw this tweet:
It’s a great framework to stay focused on what’s important and keep your motivation up.
But a word of caution: consider it a starting point.
30-year-old me is wildly different from the 20-year-old version.
In the past 10 years I’ve undergone multiple goal changes.
Get a good job in creative advertising…
Travel the world…
Start a fiction magazine…
Just like the body replaces most of your cells every 7 years, your thought processes evolve and your desires change.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan or set goals, but you should be willing to adjust them as your priorities change.
So instead of having two points of reference (today vs 10 years from now), break it into 5.
I call this the Achievement Pipeline.
Start at the top and think your way through each step. What do you want to achieve, and what will it take to make it a reality?
Work backwards and write out the journey.
Now you have an action plan that can be tracked. And what can be measured can be improved.
Then, work from the bottom up. Do the daily actions, track your weekly progress, and hit the monthly milestones.
Here’s an example:
- Decade Goals: Create a one-stop shop for new authors to learn, write, and get published.
- Quarter Project: Launch AuthorHQ.
- Monthly Milestones: Write 8 articles. Schedule an expert lesson.
- Weekly Progress Tracking: Upload 2 articles. Have 5 introduction meetings.
- Daily Lever Moving Actions: Write for 2 hours. Send 10 emails/DMs.
This framework works well because it shows the big picture.
It keeps the big goals top of mind, and shows me exactly what I have to do every day to achieve them.
Of course, there will be distractions, complications, and set backs. I don’t perform in a vacuum. I have other responsibilities, like reading submissions and filing taxes. Friends and family will pull me away, and illness might punch my sinuses for a week.
But using the Achievement Pipeline, I can assess the damages and alter my goals to stay on track.
Writing for 2 hours a day but only finishing 1 article/week? Maybe the monthly milestone was too optimistic, and I reduce it to 3-4.
Not able to schedule even 1 expert lesson in a month? Well, that milestone is non-negotiable, so let’s increase from 10 messages to 20 every day, and try to double the amount of meetings I have.
This granular control is only possible by planning and tracking.
Keeping it all in my head means I might not be able to identify what isn’t working, causing stress and frustration.
And since this isn’t a report I need to hand in to my boss, it becomes a dynamic document.
It’s fully adjustable based on my current circumstances and style of life. Reviewing it once a week—or even once a month—will provide clarity and perspective on whatever you’re trying to achieve.
Writers often beat themselves up for missing a day or two of writing, even though everyone knows life gets in the way all the time.
Seeing 5/7 in your weekly tracker is more encouraging and becomes a visual aid to help keep up the motivation.
And on the flip side, as the weeks and months go by, if you find you aren’t taking the daily actions and hitting your milestones, you can adjust your goals accordingly.
Worst case is you realize maybe the big goal you set isn’t actually all that important to you.
Best case: you exceed expectations and move all your timelines up.
Either way, it’s important to stay flexible and focus on what matters to you most.
You’re constantly changing, evolving. So should the goals you set yourself.
Hopefully this is a useful tool to add to your shed.
