When it comes to goals, like losing weight or working out or any number of things, it’s said you’re supposed to share them. Making a goal “public” – especially on social media – makes you feel accountable and helps keep you stay committed.

Doubtful? Think about it in the context of working out.

Hypothetically, let’s say I’ve decided to start getting up at 5 a.m. to go running (this is definitely hypothetical. Only way I’m running at 5 a.m. is if my house is on fire). The night before day one, I take a photo of my run gear all laid out and share it and my new goal on social. I get a bunch of likes. My friends comment to cheer me on. Morning rolls around and I’m still pretty jazzed from my friends’ support, so even though I hatehatehate mornings I get up and hit the road. I check in at the local park – just in case anyone doubts I got out of bed (or maybe because I’m so proud that I did).

And so it goes like this for a bit: I keep posting about my runs on my social accounts, my friends keep cheering me on, I keep getting up. Getting up at 5 a.m. eventually becomes a habit, and I slow down on those posts because I don’t need that external motivation to keep me accountable and committed.

Make sense? Good. Here’s what I’m getting at.

I’ve found it very difficult to make time for my personal writing. But it’s something I enjoy doing, and it’s something that I know is good for me (not just as a writer but as a human being), and it’s something that makes me feel accomplished – so I need to STOP not making time for it. I let ridiculous excuses and assumed parameters keep me from doing it. (I don’t have a theme (who cares?), I need to blog every day for it to be effective (what exactly is an “effective” personal blog?), I don’t want to write another thing after writing all day (shut up), blah blah blah.)

What it really boils down to is this: I need to just sit down, shut up, and write about whatever the hell I feel like. So, here goes nothing. I’m making my goal public and I’m committing to write here at least twice a month.

(Phew. I feel better already.)

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