Please help me welcome Dale Mayer, who is becoming a regular guest here. More talk of goals, but very worthwhile! I have watched this woman go after goals and achieve them!
Writing goals - past and future
Writing a blog for the end of December just has to be on goals. I don’t care if it’s writing goals, parenting, weight loss goals or something totally different. We all make them and we all break them. Maybe not this year or last, but I doubt there is a person alive that hasn’t broken at least one of their annual goals.
It’s not a crime. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Sometimes you get in the way of yourself. It happens.
Does that mean you shouldn’t make goals? Not at all. If you’re the kind of person that likes to have a spot in your future to reach for then go for it. And congratulations for making a step to do ‘something.’
I don’t make formal goals. Every year end, I spend a lot of time, and this can be days to weeks, where I mull over my last year. Did I do okay? Am I happy with the way the year went? Did I put in enough effort to making change happen? Or did I just sit back and enjoy the ride this time? Not every year is about maximizing time and effort to get somewhere. Some years are all about healing, or building relationships, or learning skills, or learning to be less instead of more.
2010 for me was a year of perpetual financial stress. That’s an overriding theme that carried over from the previous year. But on the writing front, it was an unqualified success. I wrote one single title novel, five YA novels for a start and then as a ghostwriter countless full size books and eBooks for clients. Then there are all the books I revised getting ready to send out. Tuesday’s Child is one of those. I did one final round of revisions before I put that manuscript into the Brava writing with the Stars contest. I’m so glad I did!
I can’t look back on this last year with anything but satisfaction – regardless of the many tough times. Amongst other things, like becoming more fit, getting back skiing etc, I also lost 25 pounds! I’d wanted to do more in the writing and I’d wanted to lose more in the weight, but that seems to be because I’m a chronic overachiever!
Sometimes I think I set my goals too high. Then there are the times when I think they aren’t high enough. I’ve learned that I can do a whole lot more than I expected to. I like to have easily met goals for a sense of satisfaction and achievement and hard to reach goals to make me stretch as a person.
When I can’t reach a goal – as in I didn’t sign with an agent nor did I sell my first novel this last year, I have to remind myself of goals I have control over and those that I don’t. I can control doing my best to get that book revised and out to an agent, but I can’t control their response.
Now I could focus on not reaching my goals, but that won’t take me to a place I want to be. So instead I choose to look at the unexpected positives that came out of this year. One of those was my writing routine that settled nicely into place and to a production level I wouldn’t have thought attainable last year. That’s got to count for something!
What about you? Did you reach the goals you set for 2010? Are you happy with the effort you made? Will you set new goals for 2011?
www.dalemayer.com *new website/blog
Reminder, Dale is still in the running and needs our votes in the Brava Writing Contest..
