What’s Your Guiding Word For 2011?

At the beginning of 2010 a friend asked me how I would sum up the year ahead in a single word and I answered without a pause: Professional.

Last year was going to be the year I got professional about my writing. That meant cutting out distractions and creating the stability in the rest of my life that would allow me to pursue my writing dreams.

To that end I stopped blogging on Someday Syndrome despite being on the edge of some big-time publicity and minor Internet-success, quit being a Someday Mentor, and left off selling my coaching services. I also started teaching English that gave me a steady income but left me with enough hours to write.

On the fiction front, I took my writing seriously, participated in two courses, wrote regularly, finished a novel and completed the first draft of another one. I also treated writing like work. I took weekends and vacations and found time to move my writing forward even when I didn’t feel like it.

As the year came to a close, I started to think about what would be my guiding word for 2011 and the answer jumped out at me again without requiring much thought: Consistency.

Why consistency? Because although I was taking my writing seriously I wasn’t consistent across the board. I futzed about a lot more than I needed to. I frittered my networking time on things that weren’t at all productive for my career. I had no regular plan or clear measurables.

Being who I am – a planner! – I came up with a plan. I broke my goals out into five areas:

• Consistent writing (a writer has to write)

• Consistent submissions (if I don’t submit I’ll never get published)

• Consistent marketing (people need to know who I am)

• Consistent eating (I have food-issues that affect my concentration)

• Consistent exercise (can’t have healthy creativity without a healty body)

I’ve assigned measurable activities to each area for the year, for each month and for each week.

And I track my progress, every day.

It might sound a bit obsessive, but I want to create a habit of success, which means devoting time to my dreams. If I don’t track it, I can’t be sure what I’m doing or what actions produce what successes.

The best part? By being consistent I can take time off without feeling like I "should" be doing something, which is the quickest way to ruin enthusiasm. By tracking myself I see my forward motion and so when I relax I really relax, no guilt.

So, what’s your guiding word for 2011?

PHOTO (cc): Flickr / creepyed