What Goals Taught Me About Momentum
I left the corporate finance world after 24 years at the beginning of 2025. For years, I’d carried a book idea in my head, and finally had the time to focus on it.
I didn’t know what would come of it, but I committed to giving it a real shot. Along the way, I’ve picked up a few unexpected insights that I thought others might find helpful. So over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a few lessons I’ve learned.
If you’ve ever sat down to write, you may know the feeling: that little devil on your shoulder whispering, “This isn’t good enough. No one’s going to want to read this.”
I met that devil. A lot.
The only way I could quiet him was by setting goals I could fully control:
- Write at least 1,000 words a day. Even if they were awful. A thousand terrible words gave me something to work with. And most days? The words weren’t great, but they weren’t awful either
- Finish the book eventually
- Publish the book. Self-Publishing counts (Achieved Oct 21, 2025)
What’s missing from the list? How many people buy it or read it. That’s not my metric. Those goals give self-doubt too much room to grow. I try not to feed that beast.
Don’t get me wrong, I do want people to read it and enjoy it, and I will set goals on marketing within my control to help that become a reality. But the creative process only moved forward when I stopped measuring by outcomes I couldn’t guarantee.
Debut Novel Keeping Time nestled with some books that inspired it
Does the devil still show up? Absolutely. But the keyboard is my friend. Good words, bad words, messy in-between words, progress to the goal takes back the power.
When I left Intel, I was afraid I would slide into lazy habits and never show up for the hard things. These goals kept me focused.
If you have thoughts, criticism or stories you would like to share, I’d love to hear them.