A lot of my growth as a writer in the past two years came from being more honest with myself about:
1. what I want to achieve, in my creative work itself and my writing career;
2. my situation, circumstances, and willingness or ability to do or sacrifice certain things

It’s not easy to do; a lot of the time, in the past, either I didn’t want to think about these things because the hope/fear was too much, or I just didn’t know. It seemed easier to not give it a ton of thought and go with the flow—I was writing anyway, so it’d work out, right?

And in a lot of cases it does work out. I’m not saying you have to do all that self-reflection, especially if you don’t think it will help. Writing is still the most important act AND tool for knowing. The answers will come up (and change!) as you write your way through things.

For me, though, it was helpful to actually think these things through because:
1. I’m super busy and decisions I make now really WILL impact that career;
2. I finally got over my various complexes enough to admit that I have ambition for my work and want to give it the best shot;

3. Once I got clear about certain things it was easier to research—if I don’t know it myself, I can study or look to others to understand better;
4. I really didn’t want seeking publication to kill my love for words and writing, and I needed to disentangle the two in my brain.

I feel like it might be useful to add: I didn’t randomly start thinking about these things one day. Part of taking an MBA at a place like Harvard is that they really do make you think about your future a lot; how do you shape a career deliberately? How do you think about impact?

Can you recognize your strengths, weaknesses, privileges to shape your actions? If you’ve been given this gift, what will you do with it? What can you learn from your peers—all different, but (mostly) wildly talented and ambitious? What will you demand of yourself?

For a long time I’d put writing in this sorta suspended box where I couldn’t think about it in such a crisp or “businesslike” manner because it’s not that to me—it’s my art, passion, heart—and that’s still true on some level, but it’s also true that definition & planning help.