by Michael Lydon
GOAL!!
Announcer at a soccer match:
Smith has got the ball, he fakes left, fakes right, now he’s in the clear, he’s going like the wind, listen to the crowd, they’re going nuts! Oh no, Smith’s stumbled, no he hasn’t, he’s got his famous mad determined look on his face, the goalie’s on his toes, will Smith go right or left? He’s going left, no, right, he kicks, GOAL! GOAL! The whole team floods on to the field for a mass hug, crowd jumping up and down! GOAL! GOAL! Winners and champions for another year—GOAL, GOAL!! HOORAY!
If one day, just for the halibut, we stopped talking for a few moments and listened instead to the countless, constant conversations that surround us everyday, we would soon learn that many of our fellow humans think it’s a good idea to have and to pursue positive goals. I agree: setting goals for growth can help lead us to happiness, fulfilment, and a quiet pride in our achievements.
January 1, New Year’s Day, is good resolutions day the whole world over, and I guess that you, like me, put at least a few minutes of those twenty-four hours into thinking about how to improve our actions and our outlook on the world. The only trouble, as we all know, is that resolutions are hard to keep; how quickly they can melt away as spring approaches. So let’s take a moment to look back at a few of our Write-the-Worlders’ best intentions for the year and, inspired by them, check in on our own.
Here are a few examples of your goal-setting writing, recently published in response to the prompt.
From dreamisms in the US:
My mother always told me that the best way to make something come true is to write it down. So this is me, writing what I want into existence and so my writer-centered goal is to stop being afraid of letting myself write absolute garbage. Any writing is good writing.
From WhiltiernaWolflors, from the US:
Goals 2019.
1. WRITER. I hope to do more peer reviews and stay more up to date with prompts.
2. CRAFT. I hope to master the art of flawless dialogue.
From Sophia DuBose:
Writer Centered Goal: This year I aim to see my work published. This will mean submitting work to the school magazine, any and all local and national competitions that I am made aware of and finishing that article I began fall term of last year.
From Lilyskatee in the US:
2019 Writing Year:
1. My writer-oriented goal for this year is to be able to find writing inspiration in everything and be able to describe my thoughts thoroughly.
2. My craft-oriented goal is to create a more flowing style that is fun to both read and write.
HMN, a Write the World newbie, is ready to try goal-oriented writing, but she’s not guaranteeing any prizewinning results:
This my first post. The website caught my eyes on a random social media platform that I can’t even remember. I’m here for resolutions. I’m going to try one, no promises because there is never insurance that something will happen. My resolution is to try and write.
And weirdo is even franker about her doubts:
Let’s see…
Well, shoot! What are my goals? Do I even have any?
I guess… I just need to stop telling myself that every idea I have is a bad one and just write! …Oh, and I also need to work on my grammar. Because my grammar sucks.
Maybe we can find the unity in this variety of goals by looking back to Smith the demon soccer star we began with.
Going after goals is often a struggle against determined opposition. Smith’s opponents are doing everything they can to stop his scoring that winning goal.
How can Smith reach his goal despite the other team’s opposition? Only by working hard through long, unheralded hours of practice with his coach and his teammates. Achieving one’s goals needs constant sharpening of our skills. Smith needs to assume that his opponents are practicing just as hard (if not harder!) than he is.
Writing is not quite as cut-throat a business as championship soccer, but my goal-setting began when I was ten-years-old and I tried to write my own version of Huckleberry Finn. I soon gave up, of course, but in 7th grade I put out an edition of an old Roman newspaper, and in 9th grade I started submitting short stories to every issue of the school’s literary magazine. Freshman year at college I battled to get on the student newspaper, then covered the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi, freelancing for the Boston Globe. By the time I graduated, I had such an impressive portfolio that one quick interview got me a reporter’s spot in Newsweek’s London bureau. Then I helped get Rolling Stone on its feet and wrote the definitive biography of Ray Charles. Was I ambitious? Driven? Yes, yes, yes!
To feed my own growth I read constantly, daily papers, weekly magazines, fiction, nonfiction, essays and poems. As I read I try to notice effects like alliteration and metaphor. I go back and re-read to see how much one writer, Dickens, for example, loves to describe characters and how much another writer, Balzac, for example, loves to describe places. I write fan letters to contemporary writers better known than I am, and any day that a cheerful response comes in my email is a red-letter day that gives me weeks of encouragement.
Above all, I keep trying. Never give up, never give up, that’s my biggest, most trustworthy mantra. The best way to further your goals, hopes, dreams, and ambitions is simple:
ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST!
You’ll win some, you’ll lose some—big deal! I know I’ve lost a few, and some of those losses have hurt, hurt bad. You’ve been hurt too, I’m guessing. But the pride and self-respect we can earn by always giving every contest our best shot, that’s the best, the truest, the curative medicine today, tomorrow, and will still be so a hundred years from now. Shoulders back, chins up, courage in our eyes, smile on our lips, go, go go!
Cheyenne Vorhees put it this way:
So this is my first post on this page. I’ve had this account for a while, and I have written a few things but I never posted. I was always waiting until I thought my writing was perfect before I decided to post anything, but I’ve realized that my writing will never be perfect; so I’m just gonna start posting.
About Michael Lydon
Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk, Boogie Lightning, Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life. A founding editor of Rolling Stone, Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Village Voice.
He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.