Goals and Guilt

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Inspiration from Kristal's Operation Awesome post

Do your New Year's Resolutions make you feel guilty at the end of the year? Do you look at that gym membership and curse the loss of monthly funds to a goal that fizzled out about June? What about your writing goals? Can you really control whether or not you find an agent or an acquiring editor who is nuts about your work?


Here's my take on it: Goals are good. Make goals. Write down your goals, but focus on the parts you can control. 


I am definitely a fan of resolutions. I still have a notebook page of joint and individual goals my husband and I made as newlyweds, in the guise of predictions for the next five years. Yesterday we celebrated our five year anniversary. Not only had most of our 'predictions' come to fruition, but some had even surpassed our expectations. 


I believe in writing down what you want to accomplish. But it doesn't stress me if I don't meet all my goals. It gives me something to work on for the coming year. Give yourself a mixture of easily attainable goals and pie-in-the-sky goals, and celebrate what you've done at the end of the year. For the rest of it, reassess and recommit if it's still something you even want.

Getting an agent and getting published... they WILL happen, one of these years. All I have to do is keep expecting it to happen, keep working toward it, and that goal, too, will one day bow to my perseverance. 


What are your New Year's Resolutions? Not sure where to start? Start with this.

Join the fun!

Here are a few of my 2011 hopes and dreams, in no particular order:


1. Keep re-imagining my current WIP until the plot is water-tight, the characters are four-dimensional, and the  concept is completely unique. Then, and only then, revise it. 


2. Keep up with my critique group revisions each week.


3. Comb through my first novels to see what I can learn from my mistakes, and hopefully be encouraged by how much I've grown since then.


4. Be more engaged on the blogosphere by reading and commenting.


5. Run another marathon in Fall 2011. (to go with this: get rid of writer's butt)


6. Read all the books on my bookshelf. Take notes.


7. Teach son to read independently. Continue math play with manipulatives. Do more science experiments a la Beakman's world. (home preschool) 


8. Pimp my favorite authors' books across the web. Find new authors to love.


9. Make sure my husband knows he is loved, and has the time he needs to complete his master's program.


10. Keep a paper journal, and up  the ante on my personal scripture study so it's a nightly routine. 


Yeah, that's a good start. :)


Mary Kole wrote an amazing post on Dealing with Rejection that is actually more about the stages of a writing career and how you can get to where you want to be. Simply brilliant. Check it out!