Laporte’s The Desire Map is a workbook that helps us we align our goals with our core desired feelings.

From a young age, we’ve learned how to set goals.

Most of these goals are based on society’s idealistic view of success. 

It’s no different for writers. We often set time-based goals for ourselves. 

“I must hit this word count when I sit down to write.”

 “In three years, I’ll have a publishing deal.” 

“My manuscript will be done by December.”

We write these goals in our planners and set them aside, feeling productive. 

Although we love the craft of writing, the goals don’t spark our creativity. 

We feel hemmed in by them.

Rather than inspiring our commitment, at every stumble our goal batters our self-esteem.

Today, we’ll focus on how writers can use The Desire Map as a tool to set meaningful goals that align with their core desired feelings. 

How can we initiate goal-setting techniques that support our identity as writers?

“Core Desired Feelings” are the foundation of The Desire Map. 

These are the feelings that we want for our lives. They are not transient emotions which fluctuate in response to any given event.

A core desired feeling is a roadmap used to curate your life.

It is a guide to check every decision and opportunity to determine if it aligns with your strongest desires. 

While goal-setting is an external procedure, desire mapping lets you trust your intuition.

Laporte states that we need to balance being productive and accomplishing goals that align with how we want to feel. 

This process is slower. Yet, it leaves us feeling excited about our current and future progress.

For writers, identifying your core desired feelings reveals your authentic self and aids you in fueling your creativity.

Your core desired feelings are consistent across different areas of your life. 

They don’t change when a moment of anger or anxiety arises. You are simply out of alignment with your desires at that moment.

At the center of Laporte’s workbook will be a deep dive reflection into how you want to feel. 

As you reflect, ensure that you are ready to reconsider the perceptions from your upbringing.

Your immediate response to the reflection questions may not be your true creative desire.

This is a great exercise to get clear on the right writing and publishing journey for you!

In The Desire Map, Laporte outlines 3 steps that will help you gain focus on your goals:

Many people think authors want to sell their books for the money. 

I see it differently. I want to sell my books to build the lifestyle of an independent, full-time author. 

The money helps me build that lifestyle. A full-time author gets to spend more time writing- the creative habit I crave! 

Reflect: Why do you write?

Here are the 5 core desired feelings that I landed on…

I want to feel: glorious, soulful, on-to-something, here and now

When I write, space opens up. I can breathe easier. Time slips away. 

When I develop my writing goals, I want to reconnect with these desired feelings because they are home.

We’ll go through the process of identifying your core desired feelings in a moment, but right now…

Reflect: what feelings immediately come to mind that you’d consider living your creative life by?

The pursuit of any goal is difficult.

Making serious strides toward accomplishing it may include missing some parties or waking up an hour earlier.

It may mean sloughing through hundreds of rejection letters or doing major rewrites to your manuscript.

Knowing the struggles that you’ll encounter allows you to maintain motivation.

Resistance to continue when struggling is normal.

Understand the “why” and the feelings behind your end goal so that you can push through the rough times.

What is one writing goal that you have? Write it down.

Note your “why” and the core desired feelings behind it.

Does it still hold up?

Do you still feel inspired by that goal or do you think it’ll need some TLC?

When one of your goals doesn’t align with your core desired feelings, you can make empowered choices to recenter your lifestyle. 

You can decide to discard that goal in search of another or refine it until you feel whole again.

When you review and work on your writing goals, I want you to feel phenomenal, inspired and accomplished every step of the way!

Laporte starts The Desire Map with a rapid-fire journaling exercise. 

List the things that you are grateful for in your life.

List the things that dissatisfy you. Don’t forget to add “why” for each item. 

This exercise can help you to uncover your deeper desires. 

When done, you may step back and notice patterns within your lists.

Try this technique out as your writerly self.

Grab a paper and a pen. Make a t-chart- gratitudes on one side and dissatisfactions on the other.

What aspects of your writing life are you grateful for?

What aspects of your writing life dissatisfy you?

Keep the list close. You’ll want to refer to it again when identifying your writing goals.

So, you’ve got a list of what you are grateful for (events, people, experiences that illicit positive feelings) and what dissatisfies you (the negative emotions).

Now, you’ll list all the feelings you want to feel in each area of your life (livelihood &lifestyle, body & wellness, creativity & learning, relationships & society, essence & spirituality).

For us, we’ll zoom in on the creative process of our writer life. 

Grab your paper again.

Complete this sentence…

Within my writing life, I want to feel…

Brain dump all of the feelings that come up!

Take your time. 

You want to feel each word out. Ensure that it resonates with you and has precisely your intended meaning.

Laporte states that it’s best to narrow down your list of core desired feelings to 3-5.

Reflect on each word individually.

To help you pick, consider these questions.

Is there more than one word on my list that has the same or a similar meaning? 

Which word resonates strongest with this meaning?

Take advice from Laporte here: “Choose the words that are so precise that they feel electric” (200).

Use the words and meanings that connect with you.

At the end of this exercise, Laporte reminds you that trial and error is a part of any goal-setting process.

She encourages you to try out your words for a week. Post them somewhere you’ll see daily to keep them fresh.

If anything feels out of alignment, it’s okay to revise your core desired feelings until they feel as glorious as you are!

You may be wondering where the actual goal setting falls into all of this.

You could spend all day repeating your desires as if this mantra will manifest the accomplishment of your goals.

Desire mapping isn’t just an introspective reflection on your feelings. To maintain this alignment with your goals, you need to take action. 

It’s time to determine the writing goals that align with these desires. Time to consider the daily actions that you will take to move closer to their accomplishment.

Laporte states that too many goals can diminish your ability to accomplish them with excellence.

She suggests setting 3-4 goals to focus on within one year. Set less if that seems more manageable.

Remember to prioritize goals that align with your core desired feelings. 

They should excite you!

Your goals may change. What felt aligned with your feelings at first may veer off course throughout the process.

Regularly revisit your goals and adjust them so that they are continuously in tune with your core desired feelings.

This doesn’t always mean throwing out a goal. It could be that you need to consider which action feels right to you.

For example, writers could determine that self-publishing their novels rather than the traditional publishing route is aligned with their goals.

Near the end of The Desire Map, Laporte provides action sheets to support your ongoing goal-setting and accomplishment.

Desire mapping is not meant to be a one-off exercise.

For you to witness its benefits, you will be:

• Keeping your core desired feelings at the forefront of your mind
• Reflecting on and realigning your goals when necessary
• Completing weekly and monthly check-ins

Each week and month, determine what actions will help you accomplish your goals and feel those core desired feelings.

Ask yourself: How can I reach my long-term goals in a way that aligns with my core-desired feelings?

A year is a long time to have any goal set for. 

There are numerous small steps or atomic habits that need to be accomplished along the way.  

Using quarterly planning to break your goals into three-month manageable tasks can further support your progress.

We all hit road bumps along the way. 

When you’re struggling, remind yourself of your core desired feelings.

This strategy will help you to:

• Halt the complaints
• Help you renavigate your direction
• Remind you of the possibilities

Reflecting on your core desired feelings is a tool to keep you from giving up. 

Remember why you are doing these tasks.

As a writer, it can be difficult to determine the writing goals that are meaningful to us. 

We may feel pressured to write a story that is sure to captivate the mainstream audience. Or, feel that we can’t call ourselves an author until we’ve been traditionally published.

Yet, if we take on goals that don’t inspire us then our love for the craft may fade.

The Desire Map is a tool to help us navigate our goal-setting process.

Every part of our writing life can be meaningful when we take time to reflect upon our authentic desires.

I encourage you to explore your core desired feelings and use them to guide your unique writer’s journey.

The Desire Map holds numerous exercises beyond the scope of this blog post. Picking up a copy of Laporte’s book may help you to navigate the process.

For myself, this process helped me to develop a blog where I can connect with you! 

I am so grateful to be going on this writing journey alongside you.

What is one of your writing goals for this year? I’d love to hear how it aligns with your core desired feelings.

Share them in the comments below!

Talk soon!

Julia