Dreams are made in flashes
...goals are made in ink.
It might seem odd being a writer, but I’ve never been one to keep a journal.
Or a diary. Or a daily planner.
Not because I felt recording my thoughts or my agenda was a bad idea.
But because, regrettably, my penmanship is simply more messy than I’d like it to be.
Always one to make sense of a mess and not incite it, I’ve never been a fan of physically writing things down. In the moment. Botches and scratches and all.
That was then.
Recently, I’ve been planning my day in a short spiral-bound notebook I keep on my desk.
I write down the same three things I want to achieve every quarter. Followed by the 1-3 steps I can take today to achieve each of them.
In short, I’ve been setting goals.
And I’ve been hitting them. Consistently. Day by day.
Something I’ve noticed is this:
Goals work. If you write down what you want and what’s possible and what you can do about it — and actually prioritize doing those things — you can accomplish things you didn't think you could.
Something amazing happens when you write down the goals you’ve set for yourself and the steps you can take to achieve them. Same goes for jotting down what you learn (about what works and what doesn’t) along the way.
Writing down goals and steps and footnotes and lessons tends to get messy. That’s the price you pay to ensure that your pristine and amorphous dreams ever encounter the light of day. Ink makes all things possible.
Finally, a great pen is a great investment. It’ll help you to actually enjoy the process of writing and jotting things down, on paper.
Writing a goal out loud, in ink, as messy as it may be, might be the best way to discover both what we want for ourselves and what a day well spent chasing them really looks like.