Happy New Year - I've Already Missed One Goal for 2014

Happy 2014, everyone!

I try not to make New Year's resolutions because I have a hard time sticking to them. Instead I set goals. Apparently, I'm not so good at keeping goals either.

A few of my writing goals for 2014 are to: submit something at least monthly, meet all deadlines, and get to critique group early.

On the positive side, I wrote, edited, and submitted an essay for an anthology yesterday. Checkmark! That accomplishes one of my monthly goals.

Another on the positive side: Last October I taught at a writers' workshop. One of the things I asked the students to do was write down their three-month writing goals for October through December. I gave them envelopes to put their goals in and had them address the envelopes to themselves. I promised to mail the envelopes to them around the first of the year. Instead, on December 30 I put stamps on the envelopes and mailed them back to the students so they would receive them around January 1. I'm counting that one as being finished early.

Also regarding my goal to the meet all deadlines. The past couple months I've been judging a contest with two categories--fiction and nonfiction books. I was asked to have my selections by the end of December. There are twice as many novels as nonfiction books. I sent off my nonfiction selections this morning. I'm almost finished reading all the novels and plan to make my selections before my cataract surgery next week. So, I missed having all the books judged by the deadline, but that's not too bad because the awards ceremony isn't until the spring. I'm not getting paid to judge, but still I had hoped to make the first deadline.

About being on time.

Well, I had planned this post for yesterday but Dillard's was having a big one-day sale with 50 percent off sale merchandise.

Perhaps my biggest goal for 2014 should be to focus and not let distractions get in my way.