Did You Reach Your 2016 Goals?

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Hope you all had a great time with your loved ones over the weekend!

WHEN PLANETS FALL releases next year! *squeal* And next year is only about two weeks away. *double squeal* I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to reach the end of December before. Well, 2016 was a special occasion. This year sucked in most areas, so I think we are all ready to flip the calendar to January.

And a new calendar year = GOAL TIME.

I honestly hate goals. My body never behaves, life sends curve-balls in the form of tornadoes, and my goals change as time ticks on. I’m never able to check everything off. And yet, I am majorly goal orientated. In college, I would literally have to tell myself “Put this down. Talking to your roommate is good.” I blame this gene on my mother.

However, earlier this January, I decided to set real creative goals. Knowing that yearly tornadoes happen, especially when dealing with my disorder, I had adjusted my goals to make them more doable. While I’m thinking crap, time to face reality, I’m also really curious to see how closely I guessed. Where they actually doable for me? Or do I need to change my goal strategy for 2017? Or should I just go back to my anti-goals.

First, let me list some of the bigger tornadoes we dealt with. (That way I feel even better about myself when I look at these goals):

~We adopted a puppy. Who turned out to have more behavioral issues than expected.
~Setback, setback, setback, in getting our yard fixed to keep our basement from flooding again. And then our basement foundation cracked.
~I got sent to a migraine clinic for a month
~clinic = had to stop using narcotics for pain. Which suuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
~Hardcore depression from the clinic lasted about 2 months (I easily lost over 3 months thanks to this)
~DGH quit and switched jobs into a totally different field (which also affected where we attend church)

Woah. Okay, now I’ll feel better about myself when looking at my goals. Ha.

Let’s face the truth together, shall we?

Here’s what I listed (and what I actually did): (sorry it’s so long…)

~find a new work rhythm that works with migraines (since creativity and migraines and puppy work best with rhythm)

Still working on this. Every month is different. Every stage of evey project is different. The longest I’ve been able to stick with a rhythm is two weeks. And this isn’t due to lack of willpower. I am a willpower machine. I’m honestly concerned that I may never find a great rhythm for myself.

Maybe I can reshape this goal for 2017?

~continue keeping track of what I do for writing, but start keeping track of other creative things I do each day

I did this for one month. Oops. But in July I started using a daily planner to keep track of what I do hour-to-hour. I loved that because I can really see patterns in migraine pain or what triggers what. I didn’t write down hour-to-hour every day, but I’m still currently using the planner! Win for me.

~sign up for 1 art class or workshop

Holy crap! I did this! I didn’t realize I actually did this! And I did it twice! I participated in a one-day workshop in July on using metallic paint. And then a 3-day workshop in August doing watercolor portraiture.

And here I was beating myself up for not reaching this goal.

~relearn photoshop (my new version swapped everything around :/ )

Yeah. Ha. Didn’t happen. Though I did refresh myself on the most-important-topics needed for whatever my current project was. So half-win?

~set up art store

I did this too! Took me until April, but I did it. Here’s the link: https://society6.com/abbyjreed

Again, I beat myself up for taking so long. But I still set up the store within my time frame. still a win!

~continue with voice and piano lessons for fun and enrichment

OMG! I’m on a roll! I switched from piano to composing, but my goal in both has continued to be fun and enrichment. And I’ve continued with them.

~read 1 writing book a month or study 1 author

meh. I definitely read A TON of books, but not specific to this.

~research and submit for a conference proposal

I did this three times! I still have to hear back for two, but I was able to be on a panel for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers this fall.

Also, I taught a two-day art workshop at a local high school!

~start querying small presses for WPF

Better yet– I SOLD WHEN PLANETS FALL TO A SMALL PRESS!!! And it comes out next April. Thank you Soul Mate Publishing!

~rough draft for WJF (actually did that last week! Amazing.)

I’ve done even more work on it. I’m definitely in the editing stage. And my editor is interested in it!

~bring WPF 2 up tp line edits (maybe)

Nope. But after edits on WHEN PLANETS FALL, I completely re-outlined the rest of the series and did some major thinking for book 2.

~finish TPT, big pic edits, everything (by August)

By the end of August, I’d done big pic edits and reached out to an indie editor to help give feedback and take some of the work off me. I should be looking at another round of TPT in the spring. Didn’t expect to have reached this one so specifically!

Considering our tornadoes, I’m really impressed with myself. I totally thought I would bottom out completely on my goals. Turns out I made most of them! Who knew?

The moral I learned–making adjusted goals works for me. And when tornadoes come, it’s okay. Since I’ve adjusted, I can still manage to do what I planned. And I should STOP whenever I feel like beating myself up. Because I’m probably doing it for no good reason.