2025 Goals Check-In

As we’re nearing the end of February, it’s a good time to check in on your 2025 goals. Have you made some? Are they turning out to be a good fit for you this year? Now, some goals will be big like “finish a novel” or “complete a writing course,” so it may be too soon to think about how you’re progressing there. Or is it? Let’s look at some check-in points for your goals for this year.

Prepping for Big Goals 

Begin as you intend to continue. Have you signed up, gotten started, or at least begun plans and prep for the big goals you’ve set? If you’re planning to write a novel this year, now would be a good time to be doing research and planning, even if you haven’t actually started writing. You may be holding off on the writing until you get a big chunk of time during vacation, but you can begin the prep for the goal now, thus maximizing the use of that chunk of time when it appears.  

And when it comes to things like writing workshops, conferences, or classes, it’s probably time to sign up for scholarships or simply sign up for the course itself. If you’re already in the course, have you actually started the work? Big goals are made up of lots of little steps, and now is the time to begin stepping into them. 

Habit Goals 

Some goals have to do with writing habits. “I’ll write a short story a month,” “I’ll research new markets every week,” or “I’ll write poetry when I’m waiting for appointments.” And you may already be able to see how that’s working out. It may be time to tinker with how often you expect to fill the goals. Or it may be time to think about what might be keeping you from managing these small goals.  

Can you change the circumstances around them to make them easier to meet, or has the year simply not been going as you expected, so you need to change or drop this goal for now? You might change a poetry goal, for instance, to “have a dozen poems written and refined by the end of the year” instead of hoping to write one a week. Tinkering with goals now to make them better match with what you’re encountering in your life can help end the year without a feeling of defeat over any unmet goals. 

Speaking of Obstacles 

Now might be a good time to really look at what is standing in the way of the writing life you want. The problem may look like it comes from outside when it really comes from within. For example, years ago, when I was single, being a writer seemed to suggest to friends and family that I had endless free time and could be counted on for absolutely anything they needed. Need a last-minute babysitter? There I am. Need someone to help with a project? There I am. Need someone to keep you company? Me again. And mostly I was glad to help, but it quickly ate up all my time, and my writing got pushed to late at night.  

I’m not a late-night creative. This was a problem. But the problem wasn’t that my friends and family didn’t respect my work. It’s that I didn’t. I have a problem with never saying no. I didn’t like to disappoint. I liked feeling needed. But my work suffered. Surprisingly, getting married and moving to a new state suddenly gave me a lot more time. Turned out when a husband was the only one who needed anything, I had a lot more time to work. And my friends and family actually all survived not having me around. Imagine if I’d just learned to say no and made my writing more of a priority. 

So, if you’re running into obstacles to meeting your goals, it’s a good time to start thinking about what they are. And be careful not to blame things outside, when a change in how you handle things would really solve the problem. 

Equally, some things pop up and legitimately need to be allowed to consume your time. In 2024, my husband had radiation therapy every day for over a month. The therapy created side-effects that made the whole situation easier if I went with him each day. That was a need that I legitimately needed to prioritize. And when my end of year goal meeting was affected by it, I was able to accept the results without guilt. Plus, my husband is much better for the treatment. It’s all a win. 

Flexibility is Fabulous 

Sometimes updating the goals early in the year means swapping out one goal for another. It can also mean adding a goal. Sometimes opportunities pop up that you didn’t expect. That’s the great thing about goals. They are something you set, which means you can change them to meet shifting opportunities and demands on your time. 

For instance, at the end of 2024, I was offered an opportunity to do a book for a publisher I’d never worked with before. I hadn’t intended to do one for them, but I certainly added it directly to my goals. And sometimes when I’m adding something big like that, a whole novel, it is absolutely going to affect other goals I intended to meet, but now may not. That doesn’t mean I failed at anything. Adjustment is essential to success. We have to be ready for it, and not fear it. 

Adjustment can also offer its own rewards. Suppose I have to make a sudden trip that I hadn’t intended; that will mean I have the opportunity to gather experiences in a different place that will inform my writing. I may not have expected to have that opportunity, and the trip may push other things aside, but every experience offers something new to me as a writer.  

This is true for good surprises and bad. I read once about a writer who was mugged, and it was really scary, but even in that terrifying moment, a part of her was thinking, “Oh, this is what that’s like. Now I can write about it better.” And that’s what life experience, good and bad, does for writers. So, I need to be flexible in my goals so I make room for life, because life makes me a better writer. And the more I’m present in that life, the more I’m gathering detail and experience that will inform my writing. 

Good Luck, Good Goals, Good Year 

Doing a goals-check shouldn’t be an opportunity to berate yourself. It’s a chance to recognize that you still have lots of time for adjustment. You can make changes to add better goals or cast aside goals that no longer fit you and your life. It’s not one and done.  

Like your writing journey, goal setting and keeping is a journey too, one with plenty of surprises, detours, and snags. The writers who get the most success from each year tend to be the ones who are most flexible, shifting with changes in life, and always pressing on. Because if your goals don’t keep you moving, they aren’t goals at all; they’re obstacles. So, here’s to good goals and good success for us all. 

Related Articles for Changing Goals

• Change, The One Constant
• 5 Ways Writers Can Prep for 2025 Goal Setting
• Making Goals in Uncertain Times