It's January...Already?!
Ah, January, the month I cross out the year for the first two weeks and then get the hang of it, only to inexplicably forget again in say, April. I’m not going to recap my 2007 goals except to say that I met a lot of them and even some I hadn’t even intended to set (yay lifestyle change that lost me about 15 pounds since September!). I even realized a dream goal (read Carrie’s post from yesterday) by finaling in not one, but three contests. I even took first place in one of them!
I’m also not going to itemize my goals here yet, mostly because I haven’t written them. We had a sleepover party (second annual) at Burke Manor last night with two other families and the adults each recorded at least two resolutions (I did the recording in my writing notebook). One friend wants to employ the word “no” more often (I second that!) and another wanted to take more vacation time. It’s good to stop and smell the roses. I’m having a hard time putting into goals what I’d like to accomplish this year. Hmm, maybe setting my goals should be my short-term goal.
Writing-wise I’d like to finish Beauty and the Bandit (which I am thinking of calling Her Wicked Ways – like it/hate?) by the end of February (and yes, I know February is a short month and that I’m using way too many parentheses in this post!). My dream goal this year is to attain representation and I feel really good about the progress I’ve made (made that goal last year too, w00t!). My biggest short-term goal is to somehow find my writing rhythm. December was a wacky month for me (not just the holidays, but they make it crazy enough), so I’m looking forwarding to getting back in the swing. January 2 always feels like that first day back after a great vacation. Sorta like that early 90s song, “Back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now, today…” I think it’s early 90s. I’d Google it but my Internet is not behaving properly and I’m writing this post Tuesday night on about two and a half hours of sleep.
So how does January 2 make you feel? Full of hope? Full of angst? Or maybe full of something else entirely? Spill! That way you’re not so full. If you’re like most people, it’ll feel good to lose that holiday weight…
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10 comments:
I haven't actually sat down and written out my goals for this coming year. They're still bouncing around in my head, while I try to figure out what is my goal and what is my want.
I have lots of those (wants), but to make the actual goal...hmmmm...it's going to take some serious thinking.
Happy New Years!
Went out and bought our 2008 calendars yesterday--the great thing is, when you put it off as long as I did, they're on sale!
My desk calendar is Mary Engelbreit, and today's quote is "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you do with what happens to you."
That's a good quote for the second day of January, I think.
Great post! I've decided that I like to write down both goals and dreams -- it's just nice to look back at the end of the year and realize where you started. I think with writing, progress can often be so slow that you never really realize how far you've gotten.
How does Jan 2d make me feel? Tired :) It's hard to start any lifestyle changes because my birthday is in 2 weeks and it's a big one -- I always fall off any new bandwagon right around then :)
The only thing January 2nd makes me feel is a little confused when I try to write the date. (And like you, I end up scribbling out the previous year from all my dates for a few weeks.) ;o)
Other than that, it's a new beginning. A letting go of the happenings over the past twelve months and a look forward to the days ahead. I also start looking at myself as a year older, so when my birthday finally comes, it's not such a shock to realize I'm only a couple years away from forty. :shudder:
This year I'm trying something different: a projects list instead of a list of goals or resolutions. Actually, I tried this last year - on January 2, matter of fact - and promptly forgot about it. When I opened the file yesterday for the first time in 364 days, there they all were, cocking a snook at me.
(Actually, I did complete some of them, but there's some carry-over there, for sure.)
So this year I plan to open the file at least once a month and see how I'm doing. I figure if I make monthly progress on each of the projects, I should stand a pretty good chance of finishing most if not all of them. We'll see.
January 2 = blah. No other word for it.
Happy New Year's to you too, Vicki!
Great quote Gillian. Now if I can just remember where I put my 2008 calendar I bought two months ago...
Big birthdays are fun Carrie!!
B.E., I'm kind of the same way. My birthday's in March so it's close. And I'm moving dreadfully close to 40 myself. Yeep.
Bill, great idea for a project list. I should probably do that too. I have long-term projects I haven't touched because they totally fall through the cracks. I should put genealogy and my grandmother's scrapbook on a project list. (Did anyone notice my stress level just spike?)
I love Her Wicked Ways!
And I, too, feel like I'm walking through a haze right now. Off to generate my 2008 goals!
Hi, Darcy! Be warned: genealogy is a Never-Ending Project. Even when I got back to William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great and St. Margaret of Scotland, I'd barely scratched the surface. And then there's the bloodline of those pesky Merovingian kings, which goes all the way back to Jesus of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala, if you believe Dan Brown and his sources.
So that's one I'm not even bothering to put on my projects list. If I did, it would become a ginormous black hole that would swallow all the rest. And then the Great American Novel would never get written. :-(
I haven't taken the time to write them down, but my top two goals this year are: Write and Read.
I have more personal goals too, like head back to gym, after not setting foot there in over a year *or has it been longer?*
But for now that's how I'm starting off 2008 writing and reading.
Jillian ~ I like that quote too, I'll have to add it to my list.
I second Lacey, Her Wicked Ways rocks!
(and yes, I know February is a short month and that I’m using way too many parentheses in this post!)
I lurve parentheses! Parentheses are the way to my heart!
(Parentheses AND analogies would probably make my soul burst into sunbeams!)
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