Goals and Self-Forgiveness ... by Delsora Lowe

Goals: Am I setting myself up to learn something new, OR setting myself up to fail?

Every year I set a goal vowing to pay attention to social media. That includes updating my website, which I do so infrequently that, each time, I have to relearn how. <SIGH>

Then there is reengaging on Instagram, which I always enjoyed, and learning TikTok, which I still haven’t tried to tackle. And forget learning how to work on Twitter – See!?! That is how long it has been since I thought about conquering what is now X. Even my FB engagement lacks, and that is what I use the most.

I haven’t just learned that I am horrible at staying caught up on any type of social media. I have been reminded of that defect in my character—HA—year after year, when I have to assess my old goals and reaffirm new goals for a new year. To me, navigating social media is like trudging uphill, one plodding step at a time, and never reaching the top.

So, as you probably guessed, social media is my least favorite goal to achieve.

I recently wrote a writer friend of mine about proclaiming goals to achieve THE WIN, versus setting hopeful expectations for a new year. If you consider every goal accomplished as a win, then what is the opposite? A Fail?

I have always considered goals to be about hope. Expectations you seek to attain. A mission. Something you write down and tell others, so that you’ll make a concerted effort to achieve, either by yourself or as part of a team or coordinated with workplace colleagues.

Seeking Forgiveness:

Some goals, in the workplace or in your community, are important or essential to attain no matter what. But personal goals… Well, my philosophy is life gets in the way. If something comes up that is more important—a make-or-break, a family emergency, or a task in your day job that will affect the next steps of a project, or even changes in a writing project—well, those intervening tasks must be attained. And at times to the detriment of achieving other goals.

When setting personal or writing goals, I believe there is room to delay reaching that goal. And, in some cases, it is perfectly fine to say this goal no longer seems top priority or necessary to achieve this year. Or this goal can just as easily be pushed forward to achieve at a later date.

Hence, my need to just hit DELETE on Social Media goals. I hope by taking this off my list, I will just wander into achieving that now, unspoken goal, without feeling the pressure. <SHRUGS> One can hope. But one can also be relieved without that added pressure.

Although, in reality for 2024, I believe I have set myself up to most likely “fail” in tasks I have never tried before. It all depends on my energy to learn something brand-new to my toolbox of writerly skills. But they are also skills I have always been intrigued to try. If I can’t conquer how to achieve leaning these skills, at least I will have tried. 

Yes, I am setting myself up to learn something new. And yes, my chances of failing or not totally achieving 5-star competence, is high. But hey, I’ll still learn something—anything—new. One step at a time… And, no pressure.

The exciting part of setting “reach” goals is that I know I’ll probably need a little help along the way from my writer friends. So, watch out—I might be needy in 2024.

 Do you like the idea of setting annual goals? Or does committing to accomplishing 
a long (or short) list 
of annual goals give you “hives”?

 

Moonlighting

Starlight Grille ~ Book 3

A blast from the past, a ten-year old matchmaker with a valentine wish, an omission, and a villainous man…a recipe for disaster? Or love against all odds?

Amazon Kindle (only in print as a collection: Starlight Grille)

Books2Read

 

Starlight Grille

A Serenity Harbor Maine Collection

Welcome to Serenity Harbor, Maine, a small coastal town where the Starlight Grille is a favorite meeting place. This sweet, with a touch of heat, collection includes a new bonus short story and a Starlight Grille recipe.

Amazon: (also in print)

Books2Read

 

 ~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires burning ~

Delsora Lowe writes small town sweet and spicy romances and contemporary westerns, from the mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.

Author of the Starlight Grille series, Serenity Harbor Maine novellas, and the Cowboys of Mineral Springs series, Lowe has also authored short romances for Woman’s World magazine. The Love Left Behind is a Hartford Estates, R.I. wedding novella. A Christmas novel (The Inn at Gooseneck Lane) and novella (Holiday Hitchhiker) were released in late fall 2022. Look for book 3 of the cowboy’s series, as well as book 2 of the Hartford Estates series, in 2024.

 

Social Media Links:
Author website: www.delsoralowe.com
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/delsoraloweauthor/community/
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Delsora-Lowe/e/B01M61OM39/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Books2Read Author page: https://www.books2read.com/ap/8GWm98/Delsora-Lowe
BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/delsora-lowe-93c6987f-129d-483d-9f5a-abe603876518
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16045986.Delsora_Lowe
Instagram: #delsoralowe / https://www.instagram.com/delsoralowe/

Photo Credits:
Free Goals Cliparts, Download Free Goals Cliparts png images, Free ClipArts on Clipart Library (clipart-library.com) 
free clip art shrug shoulders - Search (bing.com)   
Pin on Education/School - Clip Art Library (clipart-library.com) 

Goals – love ‘em & hate ‘em

I love setting goals. Many years ago, I was introduced to Sarra Cannon’s HB90 goal setting system with the worksheets, calendars, Kanban boards – the whole nine yards. Finally, setting achievable goals and having a system to track progress made sense! I was ready to conquer the world! Or at least my little corner of it.

If you’re not familiar with Sarra’s dreamchild, you can find all sorts of info on her website and on YouTube. (I'm in no way affiliated with Sarra. I just really appreciate all that she's shared and taught over the years.) 

In a very tiny nutshell, you focus on one quarter of the year at a time and figure out how many actual writing days you anticipate having in those three months, being super realistic. You may think you have 90 days to write, but there’s more to life than writing, like appointments, family members who need attention or care, social commitments, etc. Subtract that time from the 90. And then there are the unforeseen things like not feeling well, or the water heater springs a leak, or the cat runs away. You get the idea. Subtract a few more days for that stuff. I take weekends off, so I automatically lose eight to ten days. Now, given that you know how many words you can write in a day (and if you don’t know you need to find out), and you now know how many actual writing days you have, you can do the simple math to see how many words you can write in a quarter. Or, if you’re editing, you can work backward. 

I have a deadline. My editor is expecting a polished manuscript by September 30th. My extremely rough draft is 70,000 words. Between now and then I have a week-long camping trip scheduled, a long weekend to celebrate our anniversary, two doctor appointments with my mum in another town so each one requires a full day, and I can count on at least three days of downtime due to a migraine. (Insert sound of old-fashioned adding machine.) Leaving me with 33 days for editing at a rate of 8 pages a day. Definitely doable, even factoring in the scene or three *cough* that need fleshing out. 

You gotta love it, right? So where is the hate ‘em as referenced in the title of this post? Well, I’ll tell you. Because I had the second quarter of the year laid out in a similar fashion and then my mum got ill, requiring me to live with her for weeks at a time and provide hands-on nursing care. Also, we both got Covid. (Mild cases, but still!) My muse left the building. I got some writing admin done, promo and such, but anything creative was a lost cause. Mum is recovering nicely, thank goodness, (Thank you Dr. L and Dr. C!) and I’m back home. Nothing I had planned to accomplish in Q2 got done. I look at my planner and feel like I’m too behind schedule to ever catch up. And that’s probably true. But there’s lots of time left in the year. I recalibrated and know that I can finish Q3 strong. Then I’ll set some goals for Q4, count the days and do the math. And I’ll add in a few extra days of non-writing just to be safe.

Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing many flavours of romance. When not torturing her characters, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious. She lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband and two hens. 

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