It’s important to have goals in life. For some people, kids are their life; their reason to get up in the morning, to create wealth and to pursue happiness and stability. For others, work is everything; fulfilment comes from climbing the career ladder, from achieving successful outcomes and gaining wealth and job satisfaction. For me, in the absence of kids to bring up, and with no great desire to advance my career beyond the intrinsic enjoyment of developing my own skills as well as those of others, the great motivator is creativity.

This means I have to have a number of creative projects ‘on the go’ at any time. And the beginning of the year is a useful time to set new ones.

My goals for 2012 are particularly exciting, as they build on a load of stuff I learned in 2011, and so, almost for the first time, I am noticing a real shift in my ability to create decent content. So here’s what I’ll be doing this year:

My 3 creative goals for 2012 sit neatly in 3 categories:

1) Take ‘The Comedy Fix’ to 3000 regular downloads.

This is a big challenge. Podcasting is a different game from 2007, which is when I was last seriously churning out regular audio podcasts on the Internet. Video is now king, and the market is now so fragmented that it’s almost impossible to get noticed beyond an immediate social circle of online friends and acquaintances. This means that as well as creating a quality show, which will be a collaborative effort with Jonny, Simon and Amy, we will need to shout loud to be noticed; through viral videos, clever use of social networks and whatever else we can do to get people to listen to us. Although we’re starting from scratch, we have the Bear Crawling Network to help us, and the goodwill of those who enjoyed Clever Little Pod and the Rhubarb Radio shows. If we’re at 3000 by the end of the year, I’ll be very happy.

2) Create and distribute an ebook.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages. NaNoWriMo was a fantastic opportunity to find out whether I could make the jump from writing scripts to narrative prose, as well as find out about my own writing process. I wasn’t convinced that my writing style wasn’t ‘clunky’ and overly verbose, but I’ve now received some feedback from a friend whose writing skills I admire, and whose opinion I trust, and it has spurred me on to take my writing seriously. So, having taken part in an online tutorial of ‘Vook’, a cloud-based e-publishing tool, I’m busy thinking of ideas to turn into e-books. Finishing the NaNoWriMo project is a possibility, but there are other comedy ideas I’d like to develop too. And with video, audio, graphics and unique stylesheets that can be built into e-books for publication on Amazon and a host of other websites, there is no limit to the possibilities.

3) Perform more live comedy.

This the vaguest goal, simply because that’s all I know about what I want to do. Performing stand-up last year changed the game for me on a whole load of fronts, but most importantly it gave me a real sense of being able to achieve anything. I don’t think I’m really cut out to be a stand-up comedian. That’s not because I don’t think I’m capable – it’s more that I don’t have the motivation. There’s a real buzz that comes from performing stand-up, but there’s a lot of fear and anxiety too, most of which comes from being exposed on-stage. So why is the goal still here in my 2012 list? I wanted to find out in 2011 whether I’m a writer or a performer. Hasn’t that question been answered? Well, not quite. Because I’ve realised that while I’m definitely more of a writer by nature, I can’t be a writer alone. It’s not enough for me – I have to have a part in making the writing ‘live’ – whether that’s by recording and editing a podcast, or delivering the lines on stage. And so, despite the fear, there is still a ‘pull’ to that spotlight and that very lonely mike-stand. What’s different this time is that the material needs to be right for me. That could be as a character comedian, as part of a double act, or maybe even in comedy improv. The only way to find out, is to try them all. So which one am I trying next? Watch this space – I’m likely to be very much removed from my ‘comfort zone’ next weekend…

And so those are my goals for 2012. They sit very comfortably alongside more long-term goals, as well as contributing to them. Goal 1 will hopefully help me gain notoriety as a comedy writer/producer. Goal 2 will also showcase my skills in humorous writing, and may eventually lead to a secondary income. Goal 3 will continue to provide new skills that will help me put on a live comedy show for a paying audience.

I turn 40 this year. It’s something you can’t avoid thinking about as it approaches, and it can provoke negative thoughts of missed opportunities and failed objectives. But more than at any time in my life, I feel ready to shake off the insecurities and lack of self-belief that have held me back up to now, and make the most of the abilities I have to achieve some really satisfying results.

And if I make a few people laugh along the way, then that’s even better.

Bring it on!