Set Your Creative Goal
The Moon Man’s Field Guide to Being a Happy Creative #002:
If you’ve decided you have a latent creative passion you’d like to explore or a creative skill you’d like to develop, then the next step is specifically deciding on how you’ll pursue it. For that you need to set a goal for yourself.
The goal is the declaration for where you’d like to take your creative interest. It’s funneling all of that curiosity and passion into a point of singularity. It’s making a big X on your map in the spot where you think the treasure lies on your creative journey, and setting your intention to explore that place.
A good goal require you to filter through some questions. The SMART goal framework provides a valuable series of filters for us to evaluate whether we’re marking our X in a place that sure to unearth some valuable treasure.
SMART is a fancy-pants acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
Say you’d like to learn how to animate. You might initially be inclined to make an ambitious declaration like, “I’m going to become the best gosh darn crocheter in the entire western hemisphere. People will finally respect me! I’ll look down on them with pity before I crush them all!!!” Slow down there, sister. There’s no reason you can’t become an unstoppable crocheting juggernaut and crush all of those people who never believed in you, but let’s take this first goal slow. The reason that this goal doesn’t pass muster is that it doesn’t pass the SMART test.
Try instead, “I’d like to learn how to knit a scene that depicts a person a drooling longingly whilst staring at a ham sandwich, over the next 30 days.” Now we’re getting somewhere, as this is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Your path to world-dominating crocheting starts with ones small SMART first step.
Now that we’ve set a goal we’re going to put it in writing and post it somewhere where it’s easy for us to stare at for the next 30 days. Our intention is set. We’re going to crochet the most delectable ham sandwich that’s ever been woven (mmm… I’m beginning to salivate just considering this juicy ham-based goal).
This is our first foray into creative goal setting, and, with any hope, it will not be our last. This initial goal is there to give us a sweat hammy taste of what’s possible, and when we reach it we’ll likely want to set another goal, and then another, and then another…! This cycle of goal-setting, followed by a period of skill building and creative expression starts to become a mindset–one we’ll want to cultivate for a lifetime.
A declarative goal is the thrust that moves us forward on our creative journey. It keeps from wandering and falling off the proverbial creative cliffs. It keeps our eye on the prize. There’s happiness to be found in the achievement of completing these goals, but the rub is that happiness comes from our journey towards them, in the period of time spent in concerted flow as we work towards our destination. In the the act of creation itself. Goal-setting and working towards those goals becomes a system of self-perpetuating intrinsic rewards, and it’s worth your time and energy to see if this system works for you. So write down your goal and journey forth, my friend.
Steps on Setting a Creative Goal
Review and write down your declarative goal
Make sure it’s SMART (Specific, Relevant, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based)
Focus on one goal at a time
Post this goal where it’s going to stay in your field of vision
Module #002 Challenge. Write down your intent for a daily habit and post it where you can see it daily. “I will _____ daily for the next XX days.”