Want to achieve your writing goals? This is how

One small ritual that can make a huge difference

I starting journaling in the weeks after 9/11. I was a young assistant, not long out of University. My mother had died 18 months earlier and I had moved from Melbourne to London and then to New York in that time, working for a fashion photographer. As I stood on the street by our downtown studio, watching the towers come down, everything that had felt solid and predictable about the world melted away.

In those grief stricken and restless weeks in the city after that day, I picked up a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. For those of you unfamiliar, it is a 10 week course to help unlock creativity, with two core tenants at its centre. Taking yourself on an ‘artist’s date’ each week (which is for pure pleasure and filling the creative well, not for productivity) and daily journaling. I became hooked on both.

I think it was Julia Cameron who wrote that it is impossible to hide from yourself on the page. Keep on journaling and you will be confronted with your inner most thoughts and desires. This is something I have found to be completely true. And I’m sure it’s a surprise to no one, that as a writer, writing is a really effective way for me to process the past and make decisions about my future.

Journaling is how I have made all the major decisions in my life - where to live, whether to become a parent, getting divorced, beginning a new career as a writer. But as much as it’s a great (and free!) tool, I no longer have the time to dedicate to the strict three pages every morning rule as set out by Julia Cameron all those years ago. As a parent, carer, writer, breadwinner etc, I’m constantly making difficult choices about my time.

So now, I use the Goodbye, Hello journals by

Selina Barker

I’m not a little and often kind of person. I don’t enjoy daily gratitude journals, or line a day journals. I want to do a deep dive every now and then to remind myself of what I want, how I want to live and what I want to say. And I could absolutely do this on my own as I did for years before I became a single parent. But honestly, the Goodbye, Hello journals, which Selina publishes every year, contain all the prompts and reminders to do a big yearly check in and then smaller quarterly checkins to regroup. It is perfect for those of us with busy lives who don’t want to loose sight of ourselves or whats most important to us.

This will be my fifth year setting a side a few hours between Christmas and New Year to do the Goodbye, Hello guided journal.

The journal is great for anyone but why do I recommend it specifically for writers?

Focus and priorities.

Writing books (and building a career around it) is big and unwieldy. It needs to be broken down into much smaller increments to make it achievable. It is so easy to get distracted!! We have so many pulls on our time. So many things trying to urgently grab our attention - bills, kids, family obligations, bosses, social media, life admin, being a partner, a friend, being engaged in our communities, and just trying to stay healthy and sane! Writing a book, or book proposal, especially when there is no external hard deadline is really, really, fucking difficult.

Not everything can be your top priority at the same time. The Goodbye, Hello yearly journals help you to decide what is most important to you, at this point in time and then make a plan for putting that in to action.

Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021

I have just looked back on my first one - Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021. Eek what a bloody rough year.

Here’s what I wrote were my toughest challenges in 2020

Lockdowns as a single parent with almost no support for Arthur (my disabled son, 10 at the time) and having to give up my work (and income) as a photographer

Honestly, I have heart palpitations just reading that back. I had spent years building up support for my disabled child and had fought tooth and nail to keep earning a living as a photographer and this was the year all of that fell apart. I think it’s pretty telling that this was also the year that I published my first book Tender in complete lockdown and this didn’t even come close to being the most difficult thing that happened that year!

After acknowledging what was taken away, I focused on what I could do instead.

2021 became the year that I….

Started a writing podcast

Completed training as a Book Coach and started my business

Began a Masters in Creative Writing

Started working on a novel

Wrote another non-fiction book proposal

Not every one of these projects panned out exactly as I imagined they would, but each of them helped me to create a life I am proud of, within the constraints I am working in. Looking back I cannot believe all the things I laid out in that first journal that I have now achieved - and more!

Each year I can track my progress through my check-ins. I didn’t (and still don’t) complete all my projects on time but I do complete them - the ones within my control that is! The check-ins act as a reminder of the bigger picture, as well as a place to concretise the steps that will help you achieve that bigger picture.

They act as a reminder of WHY we are bothering to do these hard things in the first place. Because without a WHY, and the steps to work towards what you want, life will just pull you wherever it wants you to go.

I’m so looking forward to diving in to my Goodbye 2024, Hello 2025 journal this twixmas - it’s become one of my favourite rituals to end each year. A very powerful tool in a small (and inexpensive) package. You can read a bit more about it and purchase your own one here.

Giveaway

I purchase my own journal each year (and all opinions are entirely my own) but

Selina Barker

has kindly offered me a journal to giveaway to one of my lovely readers.

Comment below or restack this post (or reply to this email if you prefer) and I’ll choose a winner at random. Anyone from the UK, EU, Aus/NZ or USA can get their hands on it!

Let me know if also have a yearly ritual that keeps you on track with your writing goals - I’d love to hear about it!