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By:
Karen Cioffi,
on 2/9/2015
Blog:
Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi
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Goal setting, writing goals, marketing goals, life goals . . . everyone has heard of these terms, these strategies to creating and achieving goals. But, what’s involved in actually creating and achieving those goals? How do you get from an idea or desire to its fulfillment?
To begin, you need to have the ‘right stuff.’ You need three essential elements. The first of which is confidence.
1.
"It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen." ~Scott Belsky
We’ve just entered a brand new year. This is the time to think about where you’ve been and where you’re heading. It’s time for ideas.
According to Business Dictionary, an idea is “a thought or collection of thoughts that generate in the mind.”
They’re usually derived from intent, but they can also be unintentional.
Kathleen Boucher has created a book dedicated to empower all children to dream big, share kindness, spread love and be happy. Using a conversational style that will have readers believing this book is just for them, she teaches children that they have the power to choose their own thoughts and that each thought has the power to become something.
This is the time of year we look back at 2013 and regroup and either sit in amazement we survived, or sit in gratitude at what we have gained. It’s also the time for New Year’s Resolutions and goal-setting. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like goal-setting. I’m a Capricorn. We live for this kind of analytical, organized kind of stuff. But resolutions and impossible goals are mean and nasty little boogers.
Let me explain. My logical mind will look at 2013 and then make a long to do list that starts like this :
1. Double my income in a month
2. Publish four to six new books in 2014
3. Lose five pounds in two months and flatten my stomach
You get the picture. I could possibly complete these tasks since I can be quite ambitious and anything is possible, but talk about big time pressure! Did you feel that headache coming on just reading this?
We often also have the expectation that because there was some craziness in 2013 and sadness or whatever, that 2014 WILL BE THE YEAR. It will be the year that everything is joyful, and unicorns, rainbows and lottery checks fall into our laps. Now, mind you, that is very possible and we can make some serious magic, but let’s lighten up there on the expectations. I do think 2014 will be lighter and positive (energy read here), but if there is some loss, or sadness, or f-ups, that’s just part of that equation we call life.
I find the solution to resolutions and impossible goals, is more of either:
1/create monthly smaller goals that you want to focus on,
or 2/have a general focus or theme for the year.
Personally, I like both, but I love the idea of creating a monthly theme. It could be bringing in more JOY into your life, or SELF ACTUALIZATION, or the year will be one of CREATIVE ART where you will devote most of your time to expressing your inner artist. But take it from me, do not, under any circumstance, pick PATIENCE for your goal for your year. Trust me on that one.
Happy New Year, dear readers, and happy mini goal making.
Empowerment Post-Assessment
Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.
Two weeks ago, I shared with you some resources to use when determining a reading goal for each student, and last week I talked about how to motivate students about their reading goal and about how to 
schedule out regular assessment. Today, I want to get into the nuts and bolts of the running record assessment time, and how to create a post-assessment conference that really empowers students.
The first part of my assessment time with each individual student is the assessment itself. Once I’ve determined the student’s independent reading level (each assessment program differs in terms of what a student needs to score to be considered independent), I take out a secondary assessment kit and read with the student on their instructional level to determine each student’s “Magic Three.” The “Magic Three” are the three reading comprehension skills and strategies I’m going to send that student off with to focus on during their independent reading time between now and the next assessment.
When reading with a student on their instructional reading level, I consider the following:
“The word reading has two senses, often confusingly lumped together. The first means the process of turning printed marks into sounds and these sounds into words. But the second sense means the very different process of understanding those words. Learning how to read in the first sense—decoding through phonics—does not guarantee learning how to read in the second sense—comprehending the meaning of what is read…[c]hildren who lag in comprehension in early grades tend to fall even further behind in later years.”
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. The Knowledge Deficit
Different running record assessment systems have different accuracy benchmarks, but when I do running record with a student, only a small percentage of what I’m looking for has to do with decoding. On the whole, I’ve found students can decode at a far higher level than they can comprehend, so this usually isn’t a factor when dealing with a student’s instructional level. What I look for is: a) do they comprehend the story on a BASIC level? and b) how much of the story were they able to EXTEND to comprehend on a deeper level? Most students, when they’re reading at their instructional level, may have a few minor problems with the basic comprehension, but really tend to st
One of the many hats I wear is that of a certified life coach where I assist clients in reaching certain goals (e.g. losing weight, changing careers, finding a partner). I've had several clients whose goals were to publish a book and thought I'd share how general coaching tips apply to this specific goal.
1) Break down your goal into smaller, manageable steps. I like to use the metaphor of mountain climbing--when you stare up at the top of the mountain from the bottom, it can seem like it will take forever to get there and you might be too intimidated to even try. If you focus instead of taking "x steps at a time," you will soon find yourself halfway up the mountain and feel more empowered and confident that you will reach the top. To relate this to writing, if your stated goal is only "Write a novel," you may not know where to start and feel overwhelmed, so the key is to break the large goal into smaller steps.
Better goal: Write 1,000 words per day (or one chapter per week, etc.)
The important thing is to make the goal manageable for you in order to set yourself up for success, and to always include a time frame to push you to reach the goal. When I'm doing a first draft, I set a minimum goal per day which helps me to crank it out.
2) Focus on what you can control. Say you have a goal of wanting to lose weight and your only stated goal is to lose 25 pounds. So many things can impact your daily weight that this goal leaves a lot out of your control, but if you focus on what is within your control, you might come up with a goal of exercising 5 times per week and cutting out refined sugar (NOTE: this goal also incorporates step 1). With writing, your goal might be to "Get an agent" or get published but that is also (sadly) not under your control. What is in your control is writing the best query and book you can, and then researching the industry.
Better goal: Submit 5 queries per week to agents that represent my genre.
3) Surround yourself with supportive people. I once worked with a client who was trying to lose weight, and she complained about a friend who kept pushing french fries at her. This "friend" was not supportive of her goals and frequently attempted to sabotage her. You are more likely to succeed in anything if you have a supportive person at your side. For writers, this might be your critique group, blog friends, spouse, family, etc. If someone is telling you that writing isn't a "real" job or puts down your goals, run away as fast as you can!
I'm also a motivational quote nut and hand out a sheet of my favorites to clients at their first session, so I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
"Whether a man thinks he can, or thinks he cannot--he is right." - Henry Ford
Have you tried any of these yourself? Any other tips that you've found helpful with your writing goals?
One of the many hats I wear is that of a certified life coach where I assist clients in reaching certain goals (e.g. losing weight, changing careers, finding a partner). I've had several clients whose goals were to publish a book and thought I'd share how general coaching tips apply to this specific goal.
1) Break down your goal into smaller, manageable steps. I like to use the metaphor of mountain climbing--when you stare up at the top of the mountain from the bottom, it can seem like it will take forever to get there and you might be too intimidated to even try. If you focus instead of taking "x steps at a time," you will soon find yourself halfway up the mountain and feel more empowered and confident that you will reach the top. To relate this to writing, if your stated goal is only "Write a novel," you may not know where to start and feel overwhelmed, so the key is to break the large goal into smaller steps.
Better goal: Write 1,000 words per day (or one chapter per week, etc.)
The important thing is to make the goal manageable for you in order to set yourself up for success, and to always include a time frame to push you to reach the goal. When I'm doing a first draft, I set a minimum goal per day which helps me to crank it out.
2) Focus on what you can control. Say you have a goal of wanting to lose weight and your only stated goal is to lose 25 pounds. So many things can impact your daily weight that this goal leaves a lot out of your control, but if you focus on what is within your control, you might come up with a goal of exercising 5 times per week and cutting out refined sugar (NOTE: this goal also incorporates step 1). With writing, your goal might be to "Get an agent" or get published but that is also (sadly) not under your control. What is in your control is writing the best query and book you can, and then researching the industry.
Better goal: Submit 5 queries per week to agents that represent my genre.
3) Surround yourself with supportive people. I once worked with a client who was trying to lose weight, and she complained about a friend who kept pushing french fries at her. This "friend" was not supportive of her goals and frequently attempted to sabotage her. You are more likely to succeed in anything if you have a supportive person at your side. For writers, this might be your critique group, blog friends, spouse, family, etc. If someone is telling you that writing isn't a "real" job or puts down your goals, run away as fast as you can!
I'm also a motivational quote nut and hand out a sheet of my favorites to clients at their first session, so I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
"Whether a man thinks he can, or thinks he cannot--he is right." - Henry Ford
Have you tried any of these yourself? Any other tips that you've found helpful with your writing goals?
As every writer knows,
creating and increasing visibility is an essential part of the business. Whether you're writing and promoting books or you're a freelance writer, you need to be out there . . . it's never ending.
As we progress on our writing path, we gain insight into what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. At least hopefully we learn. Sometimes, if we're lucky enough to have the guidance of a writing coach or mentor, we're actually told what might be amiss, or what steps we can take to work more effectively and profitability.
But, no matter how you come to the realization of certain steps you need to take, the most important thing is to actually take those steps.
This is something I've been working on lately. As with a lot of writers, I spin my wheels trying to be everywhere and do everything, but it's not an effective use of time or an effective way of accomplishing what you want to, and it's just plain tiring.
Fortunately, I've been reminded of what I need to do by my writing coach Suzanne Lieurance. I've worked with Suzanne in a couple of different clubs since 2008, and she knows her stuff.
A key to
writing success is to have your major writing goals in place and to be focused. What tends to happen though is we forget what out actual goals are - we get sidetracked, or we keep adding more and more goals to our list. This doesn't work.
My three major goals for 2011 are:1. Working on children's books for publication
2. Marketing my existing books
3. Growing my ghostwriting business
While I've been working somewhat on goals one and three, and working regularly on number three, I'm not being productive enough. The reason: I've added this, that, and the other thing to my list of goals, or just to my workload.
So, although it's the Fall, I'm going to be doing some Spring cleaning. Some of the tasks will be tough, but are absolutely necessary to streamline my workload toward productive and goal attaining strategies.
What tasks will I need to undertake to direct focus back on my major goals?1. I'll be changing my KarenCioffi.com site to my children's author site. This will entail getting a more 'children's author like' website theme and focusing the site solely on me as a children's author.
2. Establishing this site as my sole writing and marketing information and services site. Since it's pretty well established as this, it won't take too much work - although, I do have a lot of
article marketing links directed to KarenCioffi.com. To remedy this, I'll have to have a redirect page there letting folks know this is my primary freelancing site.
3. Eliminate non-productive and non-money-making jobs, and other extraneous goals that are diluting my major goals.
4. Absolutely make time to write children's books - my current WIP is a sequel to
Walking Through Walls.
5. Look into school author visits; get the book marketing items I need; write a couple of focused articles on my book topics and post them to the individual book sites to generate more visibility for the books.
5. Possibly reduce the posts here to two times a week, rather than three times
We continue with our discussion of New Year’s Resolutions:
Do you have any tips for keeping true to your goals?
To keep true to your goals, really believe they are possible and work toward achieving them. Look for those moments that seem inspired by the universe, and use these moments to help launch your goal achievement forward. Don’t just expect things to land in your lap. Make a plan, and use it to move forward in life.—P. J. Hoover, author of the middle grade science fiction novel, THE EMERALD TABLET.
I think one sometimes overlooked element here is knowing what you really want and being realistic about what is required to get it. A lot of people “want” to be writers or to have a published book, but they don’t actually want to spend much time writing. In that case, a goal isn’t going to do much good, I don’t think, unless that goal is more process-oriented, such as, “spend an hour a day writing” or “come up with a book project that I enjoy so much, I don’t want to do anything else.”—Joni Sensel, author of THE FARWALKER’S QUEST and other middle-grade and YA fantasies.
Joni makes a good point. This also brings up the difference between goals and tasks. A goal is a big step, like, “Become a published writer” or “Make over $20,000 by writing this year.” Tasks are the small, specific steps you need to take to get there. Even if you complete every task successfully, you may not reach the goal because some aspects are out of your control. Still, if you have a goal, you’ll have a much better chance of reaching it if you identify the intermediary tasks. They can also act as a reality check. For example, let’s say you’re a beginning writer who wants to sell a book manuscript this year. The first step might be to research what it takes to be published. You might learn that most writers have to spend several thousand hours studying and practicing before they get published. You realize that to study and practice writing for 2000 hours, you would have to work 40 hours a week for a year. You can’t do that. Maybe you bump back your goal of selling a book to five years and set a new goal of having two or three short stories ready for submission by the end of the year. Your tasks could be to spend five hours a week on writing, read a different children’s magazine every week, and take a summer writing class.—Chris Eboch, author of the middle grade HAUNTED series about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show.
The group was pretty quiet on this one, so Readers, help us out. Do you have any ideas?
Tomorrow: We wrap up with How do you celebrate success? What happens when you fail to achieve the goal?
Filed under:
Roundtable Tagged:
goal setting,
goals,
resolutions 
4 Comments on Resolutions (Part 4), last added: 1/7/2011
Getting the Writing Done
Some days are overwhelming with 1000 tasks and ideas competing for attention. How do you focus on what really needs to get done? How to you make sure the “imperative” things (those things that must be done TODAY) don’t take over the “important” things?
First, make sure you know what’s important to you! What are your long-term goals for your career? Carve out the time for what is important. When I had four children at home and I home-schooled them, people would ask where I found time to write. Basically–you do what is important to you. I don’t know how. For sure, I can’t tell you how. But I know this: if it’s important enough you WILL find time. Somewhere.
Second, lists help me a lot. I make a list of things I need to get done and make sure that the list includes those important things, as well as the imperative. It works well for me to cross off things from a list. If something doesn’t get done today, it’s on tomorrow’s list. Well, really, I have a sort of weekly list, a messy piece of paper that sits in front of my computer monitor. I make notes from phone calls and doodle on it. But the list is still prominent. And when that piece of paper gets too messy, I get a new one out and put the current list on it and start again. Shrug. It’s messy, but it works.
Writers write. That next scene may not actually be written on the page at any one time, but believe me, it’s written on the important list in my mind. I always find time to work on something about my WIP novel. Yesterday, I just managed to plan the revision of the next scene. Today, I’ll write that and hopefully, plan the next scene’s revision. But if I can’t get that planning done, I’ll start there tomorrow. I don’t worry so much about how MUCH I get done each day, so long as I’m always chipping away at the task.
HOW TO MAKE A GOOD GOAL FOR THE GOLDEN COFFEE CUP.
Put on your thinking caps. You need to make a really good goal. Keep it simple. Complicated goals tend to get tossed. Be reasonable. How long would it take you to get in shape for a marathon run? Give yourself that much time if you have a big goal. Keep it real, folks.
If you can't make a deal with yourself to make a goal, well, you need to work on that. Discipline is about practice. Try making four 1 week goals. You have to think about the amount of work, but be aware of the amount of time you have available. There is still no way to stop time. Your goal needs to jive with the time you have available. I am serious.
Goals are just that, not another reason to kick yourself, not another reason to eat that tub of chocolate brownie caramel fudge ice cream, not another reason to say that you are just a big mess up. My advice, if you are caught in this glue, go talk to someone. OK?
So now that you have settled on reason itself, put a pen to paper and write down your most awesome goal. Next, start preparing yourself for success.
Most of all, have fun!
SO WHAT IS THE GOLDEN COFFEE CUP?
In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), I have a little event on my blog for anyone one who needs an extra boost of motivation to get their current project rolling.
The Golden Coffee Cup is for children's content creators. Artists, writers, if you fit the bill this is for you.
The Golden Coffee Cup is a different kind of motivational thingy.
THE RULES: 1. Post your November creative goals on blog by Nov 1. I'll make sure all goals are moved to the November 1st post so were all on the same page. Nov 1 at midnight is the deadline, folks.
2. Come back daily for general cheering, inspiring, and wild ruckus. We'll work hard and do some holy snappin'. For extra motivation, virtual celebrity guests will be on hand to offer high fives for your achievements!
3. If you reach your goal from Nov 23 to Nov 30, and post your story on my blog, and you will receive your Golden Coffee Cup jpg. There is no verification process, I believe you. Send in your email address to me([email protected]), and I'll email your Golden Coffee Cup. Display it proudly as wallpaper, post it on your blog, print it out and tack it on your bulletin board for year-long motivation.
4. EXTRA EXTRA Incentive! Write a great post and you might win real coffee! I will select the four best goal stories, and the winner will receive a STARBUCKS card for a cup of coffee. I do the judging and it is wholly subjective. You do not have to be my friend to win. Really, honestly, cross my heart hope to die stick a needle in my eye.
OPPORTUNITY to featured in the Golden Coffee Cup.
A quote for the week: First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. Aristotle
photo by adamsofen www.flickr.com
If you have elementary- or middle school-aged children (or teach them), they are probably hearing a lot of jokes right now about New Year’s resolutions. That’s kind of what New Year’s resolutions have become–a joke. How long until we break our resolutions? Have we even made it to January 4th? But as we all know and many kids and teens know, too, it is important to make goals–short and long term. I make a lot of small goals each month as a writer, and I suppose one or two personal goals as well. Sometimes, I accomplish them, and sometimes not so much. Whether I call them resolutions or goals, I don’t beat myself up when I don’t accomplish one or two or ten. 
I just look at my list, think about what I can do better, and head on to the next month.
I found this book on Amazon that is geared toward students and teaching them how to set goals:
What I think is important when teaching children and teens to set goals as well as setting them for yourself is to make sure your goals are specific, possible for YOU to do, and measurable. Here’s a few examples of what I mean:
Elementary-school goal: (Good example) I will raise my spelling grade by practicing my words each night, Monday through Thursday, for 20 minutes.
This goal is specific–raise spelling grade, practice Mon. to Thurs., and 20 minutes. It is possible for a child to do, which means this goal does not rely on anyone else but the child to do it. And it’s measurable-after a quarter, you can easily see if the spelling grade has been raised or not by looking at the child’s percentages on tests.
Elementary-school goal (Bad example): I will raise my grades and do some homework.
No need for explanation here; obviously the first goal is written better.
High school goal (Good example): I will practice my three-point shooting for 30 minutes, three mornings a week before school, until I can make 5 out of 10 each morning.
High School goal (Bad example): I will work on my shooting every day.
With just these couple of examples, it is easy to see the difference between a well-written goal and a goal that is not as specific or measurable.
Since this post is about goal-setting, here’s a few of my goals (I like to call them that instead of resolutions) for 2010:
1. Query agents about my young adult novel on a consistent basis, meaning have three active queries out at all times.
2. Polish and get ready to send out at least three of my picture book manuscripts this year.
3. Start research on a new novel, brainstorm about the characters and plot, and create an outline.
4. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables at least two times each day and take my vitamin every day. (Oops, need to go take it right now, hold on!)
5. Work out on the stair stepper at home, three times (or more!) a week for 30 minutes each time.
If you feel like sharing any goals here for your children or yourself, feel free. If you have any questions, I can try and help you get your goal worded so that it is measurable and specific. Finally, look at your goals each month, if you aren’t accomplishing them, then don’t beat yourself up. That’s the number one rule for you and your students or children. See how you can change something in your lives or your classroom to help you achieve your goals and start from there!
Hi folks. Happy New Year. 2010. Who knew it would come so quickly? I'm currently in the middle of a cross country move to Texas so my posts are going to be short and sweet for a while.
I'll spend the rest of month writing about how to create an interesting beginning to a novel, but today I will share about how to launch the year.
I think it is important that we have goals. So my first question, "What do you plan to achieve this year?" My next question, "How do you plan to achieve that?" And last, "Who will you get on your team to help make your goal happen?" I'm calling these three questions the mythic questions of goal setting. BTW, you have to WRITE down the answers to these questions to really do any good. Noodling is not goal setting. This is my driving strategy to get it done, and it works.
I hope that you achieve most of the goals that you formulate this year, and give yourself a break for the ones you don't achieve. See ya next week.
Today's doodle is "A Face".
Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!
Now these quotes from some favorite characters come to me over and over and really help me move forward in life. "Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" from Anne Shirley. Next, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow." from Scarlett O'Hara. And last, "We can still hop." by Lyddie (she misspelled hope).
It’s Banned Books Week and I’ve been discussing issues of access. Today the Boston Globe has this alternatingly irritating and sweet article this week Bookmobiles’ final chapter?. Forgetting for a moment that they broke the cardinal rule of using dippy headlines to downplay whatever seriousness the article might have had, this story talks about the demise of the bookmobile at the same time as it reports on the Beverly Public Library’s fundraising attempts to buy a new one. It seems, again, like a reporter has decided on the article they wish to write before actually learning about the topic and if I were the Beverly Public Library I’d be pretty annoyed that this article frames the bookmobile idea as something from a bygone era. The article doesn’t even have the wherewithall to cite any actual data preferring to allude to experts saying “Some blame skyrocketing gas prices. Others say bookmobiles became irrelevant in communities where residents can get easy access to other resources, such as the Internet.” The caption of the photo even puts the word “Bookmobile” in quotes as if it’s some weird made-up library word.
Do people really think that the Internet is replacing the bookmobile? I’d be much more inclined to think that increasingly mobile patrons and the increase of decent school libraries has done more for making the bookmobile less needed. We still have bookmobiles, part of the year, in rural communities here. Heck we have a mobile DMV vehicle that comes to remote towns to help people register their cars. Not everyone can drive the 45 minutes from here to the DMV, particularly if their car isn’t registered. The ALA is the voice of reason in this article, with Satia Orange quoted as saying “There are communities where bookmobiles are the primary place to get information, in rural areas where getting to a library is difficult or a low-income area where computers are not in every home, where people cannot afford to buy books.” Let’s keep in mind that if you’re rural enough to not have a nearby library you probably also don’t have nearby broadband.
Good list, Kristi. I like the way you gave us the tips, then gave us the "better goals." I need to get back to setting goals again, and you've motivated me to do so. Thank you!
Duh ... lightbulb comes on over my head ... better goals ... love it thanks Kristi
You're welcome--hope it helps. :)