Here it comes! The end of the year. It’s going to be 2023 soon. Time for those wonderful New Year’s resolutions. We’ve got writing goals, son! List your goals!

Maybe one of those lines on the list will be to finish that book. Possibly just start it.  Gotta lose some weight. Get a raise. 2023 won’t be like last year where nothing got done because it barely got started.

Maybe you were thinking too big anyhow. At least I got Netflix. The gym I signed up for is only $20 a month. I’m not going but it’s there if I need it. My job isn’t too bad. I get Christmas off. Insurance…

I’ve learned something over the years that I wish I knew as a kid. No. I wish I implemented as a kid. Or even as a young adult.

Goals, in general, aren’t that great.

You probably stopped reading.

“Everyone who’s done anything has had a goal! Matt… you’re insane!

Think of all the Olympians. They had goals. They wanted to be in the Olympics. They made it because of their goal! Their vision!

What about writers? Stephen King had the goal of becoming a writer for a living. He wouldn’t have made it without that goal!

All the success gurus! What about them? They all say you need a goal!

Matt… you’re an idiot.”

Hear me out.

Goals suck because they end.

They are weak.

They are fake.

They take all the glory and didn’t do any of the work.

Full blown imposters.

You see, goals stand on the podium and take all the credit while the true heroes sit on the sidelines and watch.

It is the routine that deserves all the praise. The gold medals.

Without the routine, the goal is a fart in the wind.

The routine of daily progress. Moving only inches. Not feeling like you’re getting anywhere. All that time writhing in self-loathing, wondering why you thought you could do it in the first place.

But you do it anyhow because it’s your routine. Like brushing your teeth. I’m not going to not brush my teeth.  I wake up and brush them and brush them before I go to bed. I also write every day.

“But Matt, isn’t your goal to be a writer? Isn’t that why you do it?”

I write every day.

I am a writer.