Goals for 2017

Still playing catch up with my blog posts from vacation. However, I wanted to take a minute to state online what I want to get done this year. Because goals.

In 2016, I was able to do quite a few things I’m proud of. I stuck with my goal to lay off sugar (more or less, though I fell off the wagon *hard* in December). I exercised consistently. I dropped from 217 to 188 pounds. I submitted another book to editors. Big, overarching goals that were all accomplished. I’d like to keep that up. Here are some specifics:

• Submit another book to editors. This is the only thing that’s really in my control: working with my agents to get books to the point where they feel comfortable sending them out to editors. I can’t control if editors buy them, but I can certainly control if they exist to be bought. This might potentially be a tricky goal for me this year. I have only one book that I’m sitting on (UTOPIA). Is there a chance I’ll return to it and discover it’s a big failure? Yes. Is there a chance I’ll like it but my agents won’t? Yes. Do I have a plan for if that happens? Um . . . no? Just work on something else, I guess. But I’m hopeful we all like it, though it’s a big departure for me in some ways. If UTOPIA doesn’t pan out, I’d better hope something else brilliant happens, either with MURDER CASTLE or with a new book that comes out of nowhere. (It’s been known to happen.) My hope is that consistently writing 1,000 words a day gets me there, the same way it always has . . .
• Get down to 180 pounds. I’d like to build on my success from last year and continue getting in shape. I don’t think this is out of the question. It’ll just take some concerted effort and deciding that hovering around 190 isn’t acceptable. I’d like to hover around 180 instead. Exercise and staying away from sweets should help a lot. And not having another December for a while. (Even though I only put on 4 pounds over the break.)
• Read a book a week. This one should be a real challenge. Especially since a lot of the books I read are long books. We’ll see if I can keep up. Basically, I need to get 14% of the way through a book every day. My Kindle can track that for me. I’m already 8% behind on the book I started January 1. Might be a struggle . . .
• Improve my Slovak. I’d like to study some Slovak every day. 15 minutes? 30? Something like that. There are online courses available. The trick is just finding time for it. But if I speak Slovak better, I think my kids will be able to speak Slovak better. This has been a goal for a long time. I’ve just always been terrible at actually accomplishing it. (Lest you think I have a perfect track record with goals.)
• Continue to declutter my house and life. This one is bigger and more over-arching, in that I’m not sure how I’ll break it down. 15 minutes of decluttering a day is great in theory, but I’ve found I do a bad job of sticking with it. That said, when I went to declutter this winter break, I found that many of the places that often get really bad still weren’t too terrible, so maybe I’m improving on the whole?
• Continue reading to DC each evening. She needs the help, and I love spending the time with her. Also, it helps me get toward my reading goal. Win win!

Really, if I can stay on top of all of those goals, it’ll be a miracle. But the great thing about goals is that just by trying to reach them, we improve our performance in the areas we care about.

What are your goals for the year?