Year Review

Starting early this year to review the year, set goals for next year, and to make my budget for the year. Tossing old financial records. It sure takes a long time to shred records and to decide which to shred. Found some old records from 1989. Before www, I was on Comp-U-Serv and was charged by minutes used. Progress and time keep marching on.

Writing goals are the hardest to set. Each has to be what I value doing, measurable, and under my control. While I may say, "My goal is to get published or to get a short story published." That would not be a good goal because, unless I self publish, it is the editor's decision on whether I get published or not. What would be good goals would be to determine the actions that lead to getting published and to set them as my goals. Writing well, submitting, and doing my homework on what each publisher wants will increase my odds. That's what I can do. Submitting and doing publisher homework can be easily measured in numbers of submissions or publishers researched. Writing well is difficult to measure. Perhaps it would be better to determine those things that I do that will improve my writing like writing regularly, joining a group to get feedback, going to a conference, or taking a writing course. And when I get done deciding what to set for goals, I need to go back and ask myself, "Are these the things I want to be doing?"

Values determine our lives. Goals and budgets should always bend to principles and values because the plans are only helps not the reality. Sometimes in my enthusiasm to stick to my plan I place too much importance on straying from it. Well, back to planning. How much weight should I lose this year? Oops, only God determines how much weight I'll lose; I can only determine how much food I eat, what type of food, and how much exercise to do. Maybe writing goals aren't the hardest to set.