“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”
My friend Michelle e-mailed this quote as a New Year’s greeting to me and her other friends. I related to it right away, and wrote back to her, saying that I’m making this my mantra for the New Year.
The quote was sent to her as a New Year’s newsletter from Infinity Publishing, a self-publishing house. It wasn’t ascribed to anyone, so I did a Google search on it. Renowned self-improvement author Napoleon Hill said, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” But the actual wording of the Infinity Publishing quote is attributed to Diana Scharf Hunt, the author of some study guides for students, and a book that sounds really interesting to me – The Tao of Time.
The description of the book says, "Drawing on the timeless wisdom of the East, The Tao of Time provides a whole new approach to time management that gives the reader productivity as well as freedom and fulfillment. With visualizations, awareness exercises, and examples from executives and time-study experts, this book will help readers manage and enjoy their entire life."
It seems to be out-of-print, but I think I want to try to find a used copy to order. Time management is always an issue for me, and I think the Eastern approach would be good for my right-brained, ADD way of thinking.
And I have the quote in mind, as I’m once again creating a list of writing goals for the New Year. Many are the same ones that I’ve made and written in my past blog posts each January 1st. I feel like the proverbial resolution-makers and breakers, who each year promise themselves they’ll lose weight or quit smoking or save more money, only to find themselves back to start at the beginning of the next year.
But today, on the first day of 2012, I’m feeling more committed to my writing goals, as well as my general goals of each New Year, like taking better care of my health and spending more quality time with my family and friends. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been feeling well lately, so I’m more aware that I’m getting older and am not physically as young as I mentally and emotionally feel. Or maybe it’s because I can remember past New Year’s Eves and Days from years ago, as clearly as if they were just last year. I feel like time moves by faster than I can measure or keep up, and I can’t get it back again. So I want to actually make some progress this year – with my writing goals especially.
As always, I want to finish at least one of my book projects. Last year, I did pretty well with my teen novel, disAPPEAR, especially during “March Madness – Writer’s Style,” the novel-in-a-month writing challenge I took on with my writing friends Michelle, Lisa and Janine. But I ended up putting that project on the back-burner, because it seemed way too close to my real-life teen years for comfort.
I’ve thought about getting back to What Luck, my tween novel – I was more than halfway through the first draft before shelving it a couple of years ago. So I might take a look at it and see what I can do to finish it.
I also have a teen time-travel novel, inspired by the Dover Stone Church, in mind, and a different time-travel scenario for a small series of teen books. I’ve done some early research and made notes on each of them, but don’t know yet which one to start first.
But the story that’s held my attention and interest the most lately is my adult time-travel novel, about the woman who meets up with her 20-years-younger self, and inadvertently switches places with her. I haven’t had much time for actual writing in the past few months, mostly because of the hectic retail holiday season at work, but I have done some online research and I’ve written some plot notes and character sketches. So for now, that’s the story I’ll focus on the most. And I’ll do my best to see it through to the end of at least a first draft, this year.
I also plan to keep up with my journal writing, as often as possible. Ideally, I’d like to write Morning Pages every day, based on Julia Cameron’s program in her book, The Artist’s Way. But it will be fine if I can write in my journal at least 4 – 5 mornings or nights a week.
And then there’s this blog. In past years, I started a brand new blog each January 1st. But I kept the same blog from 2009 – 2010, and this year, I’m continuing this one. I think the consistency will help my writing. But I want to post much more frequently, so I think I want to try a posting schedule, like I’ve seen in many other blogs.
Several blogs use alliterative post titles, like “Tuesday’s Thoughts” and “Wordless Wednesdays.” So I’m going to try something like that. I’ll start off with three posts a week: “Monday’s Muse” – about something that inspires my writing, or the time-travel themes of some of my books. And “Wednesday on Writing” – an update on my writing projects, or something I’ve read or found out about an author, book trends, or publishing in general. And “Flashback Friday” – a memory of something that happened during the same week in my past. I’ll probably write some other posts too, any time there’s something significant going on that pertains to writing or creativity. So I’ll see how that works out.
And my deadline for accomplishing these writing goals will be by this time, next year. So hopefully, my post for that New Year's Day will be about these dreams becoming a reality.
Happy 2012 New Year, everyone!
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