Hooray. 2020 has arrived. And the best thing is, I can begin the year with a pun. A really bad pun. So here we go. Here is my vision for 2020 – my 2020 vision!

Okay, so maybe not the most auspicious way to get a year started. But, as with any other year, I like to focus my very first post on considering what might be in store and what I would like to achieve.

It’s not about setting resolutions – we know those never get kept. It’s more about setting some broad goals, which I may or may not achieve, but which give me some sort of scope for where I put the effort in.

Over previous years, I’ve often set myself a number of quite specific goals and then graded myself at the end of the year for how I went. But last year, I made a slight change. Instead of setting a bunch of different goals, I only set myself one – to make some progress on my WIP novel. As you would have seen from last week’s post, I made good on this – but only just.

This year, I think I’m going to continue this trend, but I’m going to take it just that little bit further.

I’m not going to set myself any goals.

That’s right. You read correctly. I’ll say it again, for clarity. I’m not going to set myself any goals.

What’s the point of that, you may ask. How am I supposed to achieve anything over the year if I don’t set myself any goals?

It’s not that I don’t want to achieve anything. It’s just that I want to leave my options open. Last year, when I only set myself a single goal, I found myself wandering down a bunch of interesting tangents. I’d like to explore these even further this year. Maybe I’ll make some more progress on the novel. Maybe I’ll build on my chapter book series idea. Maybe I’ll write more rhyming picture book texts. Or maybe I’ll get another idea and do something completely different.

It doesn’t matter as long as I feel like I’m moving forward, making progress with my writing. And, of course, the writing sits alongside a bunch of other factors. I want to see myself continue to be gainfully employed. I want good health for me and my family and all others I hold dear. And I’d love to see the people of the world stop arguing and disagreeing with each other and actually get together to start working on some of the big issues we face. Oh well, I suppose I can’t ask for too much.

So hope your 2020 is also a splendid year, whatever you hope to achieve.