Putting the Old Year to Bed

It's convenient that the last day of the old year falls on a Monday blog day, because it will force me to face the facts that many of my goals simply gathered dust and cobwebs.

A year ago, I was gung-ho about my goals, explaining in excruciating detail how I keep track and on top of them. Well, it worked until July. Once I managed to put FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS up for sale and went on vacation, my goals went on vacation, too.

I stopped writing my walking time down on my calender--I tweeted about it instead--and I had no real reason to open my goals since I had hit a mental wall with my writing.

Besides, I was crocheting afghans for Christmas and that, my friends, was very time consuming. . . and I still have three more afghans to make for three brothers who live quite a distance away.

I tried to keep track of too much and that was simply overwhelming to me last year. This year, I'll try to streamline it a little bit and make my list a bit more user friendly.

I'll be posting my New Year's goals on my Weighty Wednesday blog. It seems appropriate since many of them have to to with eating healthy and staying active--something I haven't been doing since the Christmas holidays and my bronchitis started when I had to stop walking.

Here were my 2012 Goals:

·         Edit TROLL -- polished, format, pay for cover and self-pub -- July 23--DONE--though I managed to lose my cover artist. I'll need to find a new one when I publish GA #4.

·         Write GA #4 (Book 4 in The Goblin’s Apprentice series), DRAGON?--edit, self-pub by December 2012--DRAGON WHEEL OF TIME? PAINT YOUR DRAGON? Of Dragon’s Blood and Tears, DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER--thought about it, does that count?? I do have the first few pages written, but haven't been motivated to write more.

·         Write short story w/Kyte Webber and dragon-dog--NOPE, but the ideas I had will go to the above story.

·         Plot (bullet point) Mystical Elements series (FIRE, EARTH, WATER, AIR)--Been thinking about all these stories, since they intertwine I've been a little intimidated with them. I need to have a wipe board to figure out how they will all crossover each other. I have written a little of each of these beginnings. . . except WATER, Water scares me.

·         Write FIRE--NOPE

·         Continue healthy lifestyle by portion control, more fruit and veg, and exercising--DONE! MANAGED TO HIT LIFETIME GOAL AT WEIGHT WATCHERS and 50 POUND LOSS RIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING! . . . though I've gained 5 pounds over the Christmas holiday--see note above: Bronchitis = no walking outside. :-(

·         Judge at least 3 contests (name, # in category, date rec’d)--forgot to document the last two contests I judged. Oops. For some reason, it's getting harder for me to read these things. I probably will limit my contest judging again this next year to five or fewer.

o   SARA Merritt--5  4 para-1 returned, rec’d 2/18, sent back 3/1,due 3/17

o   No. Texas Winter Rose--5 paranormal, rec’d 2/2, done 2/16, sent back 2/20 due 3/22

o   Daphne -- 3 historical,

o   Lone Star -- 4 historical June 23, returned 7/9/12

o    Golden Pen--5 historicals

 

The Emily-- 5 historicals

 

·         Crit when needed (document): Cyndi--TTT 21K (Feb) 2/20; I've done a few more crits for Cyndi, but forgot to jot them down. No one else seems to want crits from me. Wonder why?

·         Blog at least three days a week--I did this more or less. I'm going to still count this as an accomplished goal. Coming up with blog thoughts is draining sometimes. I might revamp this system for next year.

·         Read 50 books--keep log--documented reading 41 books, but STOPPED reading 5 of them. Why waste my time when it was boring, overwritten, repetitive, or just plain bad? One of the stories was a book I read by an author 10 years ago--she'd gotten her author rights back, repackaged the story and self-published it. I thought it was something new. WRONG! this made me mad. I'm certain that I read more books, but simply forgot to write them down. Yep, just looked at the list, I forgot to write THE HOBBIT down. I wanted to reread it before the movie came out. Part of the reason I didn't meet my reading goal was because I was crocheting afghans.

• Crocheted 9 or 10 afghans. Yes, I lost track of how many I did since I just gave them away, and I donated one to Brenda Novak's For The Cure auction in May.
• Donated 5 one pound boxes of candy to Brenda Novak's For the Cure auction--made in November.
• Donated 2 one pound boxes of candy to Writer's Police Academy in September
• Made and gave away 55 one lb boxes of candy for Christmas. Finally sent the rest of candy to hubby's work.

For the most part, this wasn't a bad year, per se, but more of a disappointing one. I haven't had to deal with serious losses due to wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes or family deaths.

But I also haven't found the focus that I used to enjoy.

I was disheartened by the fact that people whose friendships that I value don't seem to value mine to the same extent. Though I try to shrug this off, I do find it isolating and depressing.

I need to get out more.

Think about your goals for 2013. Remember, GOALS not RESOLUTIONS. Resolutions tend to be broken, but goals can be modified.

Later, Peeps