Each year at Christmastime, CARWA (the Calgary Association of the RWA) meets to review our past year’s goals, to set new goals for the coming year and to celebrate the season. It’s a night we all look forward to.
We’ve probably all heard about goal setting and especially, SMART goal setting. The usual Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Trackable goals.
Specific: How many submissions will we send? And when?
Measurable: How many hours (or minutes) per day will we write? Or, how many words per week?
Attainable: Are our goals realistic given the time and resources we have available?
Relevant: Are our goals relevant to what counts? Does going to another conference really help us write that book?
Trackable: Can we keep track of our progress?
Making our goal setting SMART is important. But more important than that, doing our goal setting as a group helps to make us more accountable, more encouraged and more committed. We talk about what worked last year and what didn’t, and we say what we will aim for in the new year. And after we’ve done that, everybody applauds, no matter how much we’ve done.
In the past year, CARWA as a group made over 1000 submissions. Many of our writers published new stories. Some of our writers published for the first time.
At the end of the evening, all of us go home feeling energized and renewed and ready to continue our work.
Thank you CARWA for the good times, good food, good friends.
Christmas cookie tree from photos.com #86521839