I’m borrowing a quote I found on Facebook just the other day.
Neil Gaiman: “May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art—write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
There is so much in there to love! Don’t you love, “good madness?” I especially like “write…as only you can.” Goals and wishes have some similarities and some differences. We can all wish for something: to lose weight, to stop smoking, to write a book, to get a book published, to walk every day, to win the lottery.
But if we don’t figure out a plan for that wish, it remains a wish and never becomes a goal and more than likely we don’t accomplish anything.
I frequently write about goals in the new year, but in reality we should state one whenever the mood strikes us. (It’s a little like cleaning out the closet. Whenever that drive to clean hits, I know to dig in right then and get busy. No telling when it will strike again or how long it will last! 🙂
Having spent the vast majority of my life as a kid and adult connected to schools in some way, I see new beginning opportunities at other times than just in January. Most schools start in August or September. Besides the first of the year, we have the beginning of a new 6 (or 9) weeks period, the beginning of a new semester. Even at the first of the week, you can resolve to do a better job of whatever
Generally, the “experts” (yes, there are experts about how to set goals!) suggest that goals must be
Paraphrasing
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Concrete/ Measureable
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Something you can realistically accomplish
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Be accompanied by steps to make them happen. (just wishing doesn’t work.)
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Have a support group.
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Celebrate your accomplishments.
A weight loss goal fits those guidelines. You can measure your progress or lack of progress. LOL As a writer, I expect that one will always be one of my goals forever. At some point, I hope I can change it to maintain.
If I’m doing my work, I’m sitting in front of the computer. Finger exercise doesn’t quite get it. Though actually, my fingers are quite slim. 🙂 In January of 2015, I went on Nutrisystem and chronicled my journey on this blog. I lost a total of 28 lbs. Then tried to manage eating “real” food, because in reality you can’t just eat packaged food forever. Over four or five months 10 pounds crept back on the scale. Now I drop one or two and put back three. So it’s time to refocus. 
Still, I need to celebrate that I’m 20 pounds lighter starting this year than last.
But I have to release my next book, ACT OF TRUST. That’s the first goal for this year. Waiting to get it back from the formatters. For some reason, it’s taking longer than usual. Still shooting for before the end of January. Love the cover.
The next big writing goal is to write book three of the series, ACT OF BETRAYAL. So far I’ve got 800 words. Not many toward a goal of 70-80 K!
When I finish the rough draft of ACT OF BETRAYAL, I’ll put it away for several months and return to the third book I wrote, THE THEATRE. Put in on hold to focus on ACT OF TRUST and because I didn’t want to release two books back to back with theatre settings. After I release THE THEATRE, I’ll go back to edit book 3 of the series. Complicated, but doable if I keep my rear in the chair.
Of course, complicating this more is the fact we’re moving this spring. The work on the lakehouse is coming along and if we can get our house cleared out (taking time from writing), so we can put it on the market, I believe we can be in by late spring—April or May. 
Whew! Makes me tired writing all this. So how about you. Do you set goals or make resolutions? Do you have any tricks for keeping yourself motivated? Do others working on the same goal help? Or do you do better just on your own.
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Marsha R. West, Author 
Hi Marcia,
Anne and I are always making goals for ourselves. Between the two of us we prod ourselves along. Sometimes a new goal can lead to unexpected places as well. That might be a post all by itself.
Ken Hicks
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Good morning, Ken. I do think having a buddy helps pick us up when we’re down and then we can do the same for the other. You could certainly write about unexpected places. You have a magical eye for seeing things others don’t. Thanks for stopping by.
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I love following the progress of your lake house on your blog. It’s like watching someone’s dream come true. Thanks for sharing.
I am impressed with your goals and your ability to goal set. I have rather an adversarial relationship with goals. I tend to make too many, change them as I fly etc. But I do make them.
I love the quote you shared.
all the best
Jo-Ann
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Hey, Jo-Ann. When we built our current house, we were renting nearby and it was easy to drive by every evening and walk around with flashlights to see the progress. Quite fun. I’ve said to the workers on the lakehouse, it must be so fun (but a ton of hard work) for them to see the transformations they make happen. A neat job–making people happy. As to goals. I know how to make them. I could teach goal making–but keeping them? Ah that’s another thing entirely. Thanks so much for stopping by and for RTing. 🙂
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Marsha, love the Neil Gaiman quote. 🙂
I tend to make more daily goals of what I want to accomplish. I’m usually successful because they aren’t big goals and can be met during that day.
I do have some goals that I need to accomplish in the year, such as getting rid of stuff from our home, if we are going to downsize. So far, that has hardly been started.
I’m looking forward to seeing your lake home progress.
Have a great day, Marsha. Thursday is a writing day for me. So back at it. 🙂
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Hey, Susan. I make my dailey Todo lists, too. Those I’m pretty good with. The getting rid of stuff is a huge goal. At this point, you’ve got way more time to do that than we do. When you’ve lived i a place 20 years, and you live busy lives as we all do, throwing out always takes a back seat. But now is the time. I encourage you to do a little each weekend, so you don’t get to the end the way we are and just have this mountain of stuff! Nice to have a writing day. Looking foward to that again. After Act of Trust is out. 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by.
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Excellent choice for a quote this time of year. Brilliant. The author in charge of our crit group encourages us to write down our weekly goals as far as writing goes. It’s hilarious how we start out making our goals for the week, then report back the next week on what we accomplished. Mostly no’s. I must admit they have families and work besides writing, so they have good excuses. Me? Not so much. Still I don’t make all the goals for the week. Good luck on the weight loss goals. It is a constant battle for sure. The holidays were an eating frenzy here and it seems to continue into the new year. I have no self-control anymore. sigh. Good to know you’ll be in your lake house to enjoy a fun summer on the water. All the best!! J
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