My 3 Life Goals for 2020

Hello blog of mine!

It’s my first post for the new decade, so, like everybody else on the internet, I thought it fitting to focus on my goals for the next 10 years. I didn’t want to focus on traditional goals (like write another book! Cause duh, that’ll happen unless I lose function of my hands, and even then…there’s dictation. Ha.)

I wanted goals that I could potentially carry for the rest of my life. More . . . life-trajectory guidelines I can pursue in every season of my life.

SO—here are my 3 new life goals/guidelines: 

1) I WANT MY ART TO HOLD BACK THE MONSTERS IN THE DARK

This comes from ADORNING THE DARK by Andrew Peterson. There’s a paragraph buried in the book that makes me weep every time, about the power of art and how it can be a light and a place of refuge. Sometimes the darkness is too much, and having a song, a story, a photo is all we need to help hold back the dark.

That’s what I want for my art. I want my art to be someone’s candle. 

2) I WANT BE THE BEST POSSIBLE CREATOR I CAN

I like this because growth as an artist is not limited to only writing and not dependant on “success”. It also forces me to be creative in order to learn how to grow, since once you know the basics, most “how-to” writing books don’t touch on what you need.

Now that I’ve written a couple books, I have enough data to study what aspects of my work need strengthening (and how to strengthen the parts I’m already good at to get really good). The last ten years were about me learning the basics of writing. The next ten, I want to learn how to master writing.

3) I WANT TO CARRY JOY AND WONDER AND CURIOSITY WHENEVER I CREATE

It’s really easy to get sucked into the dredges of creating. To feel defeated by deadlines or poor sales or get trapped in comparisonitis. But to keep that sense of awe and joy? Man. It’s like holding a balloon in the middle of my chest.

I always want to create out of this space. I want joy and wonder to seep throughout whatever I’m working on, even if the story is darker.

These are my goals! What are your intentions/goals for the next decade?