When to Let Go of Your Goals

It is good to have goals.  Goals are what get us started.  They are the light that cuts through our internal fog.  They are the path our first steps follow.

But don’t marry your goals.

Just because you start down one path doesn’t mean you have to follow it to the end.  When our goals stop working for us it is okay to let them go and choose new ones.  If the horror novel you are writing takes a turn and becomes a space age love story, go with it.  Don’t struggle on trying to write a horror novel.  Make it your new goal to write that space age love story and keep going.

And don’t waste energy worrying if you are a quitter.  Making art demands flexibility and fearlessness.  The rule of the artist is:  Adopt anything that keeps you moving forward and   abandon anything that slows you down.

Let your goals be what get you started, but if you outgrow them, shed them like a snake sheds its skin.