New Year's Goals by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Happy New Year!

Well, almost. And aside from people wishing the new year will be better than this one, I haven’t heard a soul talking about New Year’s Resolutions.

Why is that?

Ask yourself, what would your world look like in 2022 if you did nothing to improve yourself in 2021? And what would it look like if you at least tried? What if you actually succeeded at your goal?

That right there is why you should set a goal. Improving yourself or your little part of the world or preparing in advance for any possible disaster. That is what having a year’s storage, a 72-hour kit, and a savings account is all about.

Maybe I should work harder on those things.

I certainly should put together a 72-hour kit for myself and one for Patches. I have thought about it, but every time I start to consider what I would need for such a kit, I come up with the fact that I’d need my pills, my blood pressure cuff, my blood glucose monitor, and my scale, at which point, I start praying I never have to evacuate my home, or I at least get more than an hour’s warning before I have to leave, especially since I’d need time to get Patches into his carrier and out to my car. He hates cars.

And that’s as far I’ve ever gotten in preparing for the future.

I have little savings, though I am trying.

It would be nice if I could sell my novel. That might even help me some.

Another thing I want to do is also something I’ve wanted to accomplish in the past, I always start out okay, then peter out by the end of January and end up scrambling by December and that makes the first couple weeks of December rather stressful. My own fault.

I certainly have the ability to make quite a lot of different things. I can knit, crochet, sew, do beading, bake, and make candy. If I would buckle down and actually do those things. I always have such great plans for gifts. I did last January but by the end of Nano, I was scrambling for gifts to send to my loved ones and to do it in time that they would arrive for Christmas.

Yeah, that was a lot to ask for just a couple of weeks. And I was most certainly panicking and worried I was forgetting someone. I really should start in January and work throughout the year. I plan to, yet again.

I also plan to try harder to sell my novel, but I also need to finish some of my other novels. I know people who want me to finish my other sci-fi (the one that is truly sci-fi and not just marginally so). And I do want to finish it, but I’m afraid it's going to be a major undertaking like Konnie’s sci-fi is and I no longer have all day to write.

Which is another thing. I need to figure out a schedule that includes writing time.

Then again, I need to work out a schedule that includes “crafting” time, so I can actually make those gifts I wish I had made this year.

Of course, when anyone sets a goal, they should start with a calendar and set complication dates. What is the use of setting goals if you can’t possibly make them?

A big goal like writing a series requires planning deadlines of your own and achieving them.

My goal for making the gifts will require the same kind of deadlines. Starting with a list of what I’m going to make, and who I’m making them for. Unfortunately, deciding what to make is going to be the hard part.

What do I make for the guys on my list?

My abilities are only moderate at best, and I have no idea about their sizes, let alone have them around to work on sizing the gifts.

Any suggestions?

I have some patterns, but ties won’t work on the ones who never wear one.

Actually, I’m not even sure what to make for some of those on my list who have collections, mostly because those collections are largely out of my sphere of ability.

Konnie would be the easiest to make something for, but I’ve known her longer than anyone else, having met in the womb and all.

What kind of gifts would you make?

What kind of goals would you make?

As writers, we should always find someplace in our goals, set a few deadlines for our writing. I know I need to.

What other goals are you setting? And what do you want to have completed two weeks from now?

I have a plan. What’s yours?

Good luck everyone!