Goal Setting with a Saint

by Amanda Smith

​The first time I heard these words by St. Francis of Assisi, they lit me on fire. I couldn’t shake them from my head. I planned my year’s writing goals around them, and I even wrote a blog in January of 2018 to spark some fire in you, dear reader. You may read it here, but the SparkNotes version is: Let’s do this! Let’s start with the necessary, then set goals for the possible, and in true Robert Browning fashion, let our “reach exceed our grasp” as we strive for those impossible dream-goals. Rah-rah!
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During December 2023, as I did my yearly goal review and planning, I pondered the peg on which to hang my 2024 writing goal hat. St. Francis’ words fizzled somewhere deep in the synapses of my long-term memory. I pushed down that thought.

“Now listen here, St. Francis,” I told the holy friar from Assisi, “life looks different than it did in thirteenth century Italy. It even looks different than it did in 2018.”

Back then I had two boys in elementary and middle school. My stay-at-home mornings were mostly my own. Back then I could easily accomplish the necessary, reach past the possible, and plan for the impossible.
But this is 2024. After eighteen years at home, I’ve been given the opportunity to return to the classroom and finally teach what I’ve always wanted to: High School Literature and Composition. Even though it is fulfilling and exciting, it certainly leaves little head-space for doing beyond what is urgent. I also have a husband who works from home, a college kid on a completely different schedule than the rest of us, and a high schooler that wants to do EVERYTHING.

Post-pandemic 2024-me is telling 2018-me, “Girl, take a chill pill.”

But the old saint is relentless: “Start by doing what is necessary…” he whispers.
As I stare at the fresh new-year page of my beloved bullet journal, I calm my inner-skeptic and make space for his words. And would you know it? St. Francis’ wisdom hits differently than it did way back then:

The wonder of doing the necessary, is that the unnecessary gets stripped away.

We’ve all established goals and routines throughout the years of building our careers, but somehow, mine had become a heavy list of expectations that weighed me down and plucked the wings of my dreams.
Do I need to track all my reading in two places?
Do I need to persist in a monthly querying practice that gobbles up precious writing time, proves ineffective, and sucks the joy out of creating or is there a more sensible way?
Do I really need to plot my writing life months ahead, or is it okay to just draw pencil hearts in my journal on the days that might likely offer an hour or two of writing?

In the beginning of this new year, it is worth asking yourself whether your writing routines and goals still serve you and to strip away the excess until only the necessary remains.
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Now, if you are in the place where I was six years ago, where you can Robert Browning it, go for it. Please do. “Or what is a heaven for?”
But even then, add some St. Francis frugality to your writing goals.
What is truly necessary?
To write.
Let’s start there.
The prophet Zechariah said, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.”
Small beginnings. One foot in front of the other.
Write.
And then do the next thing.
“Start,” St. Francis said.
That’s it.
Just start.