Words that manifest change

Ok.
So, how have you been?
I can't believe that I've been MIA for a month, and I can explain...I think.
Actually, no, I can't. I've spent the last few weeks/months/half year dealing with what is increasingly becoming more likely that I've got 'brain damage' of some description. Not severe, I would hope, but having just been for a 'head to hip' MRI, and referred to some teams in our local hospital that deal specifically with head injuries, I'm having to face up to that.
Added to that, my University time table got shuffled quite interestingly, and I'm spending a lot of time at home, reading and studying and creating more work for myself.

My new year's resolution this year was one word.
Start.
There's a logic that I explained on my blog a couple of days ago, that if we choose one key word for our year, that we can manifest far easier. It's easier for example to say 'I want to start writing' than to say 'I want to write x words a day' It's easier still to say ' I want to have completed 'x'(where x= the amount you really need to get done this year) and then divide it by 12, and then by 4 - and plan accordingly, but when you're in a position of flux, choosing one word (start, continue, care, stop) is probably the best plan.

Words that manifest change aren't a new concept, but I don't think we use them enough - and I've had some really cool ideas how to support anyone looking to build change in their lives - something I may or may not pursue, or just document and hand off. It's hard sometimes - you get an idea, and you think it's great, and you pursue it, till another one comes along. I come up with so many ideas that I don't know what to do with myself sometimes ;).

Now, I know that I have lots of projects on the go. That's more accurate though if you say 'had'. I still own them, but one by one, I let things slide - or, in an effort to keep up, started to streamline and never finished. I have things on my todo list from before I bumped my head that just keeps getting pushed further and further down my list.
So, this week, I made a fresh start. Or started to. I don't know how it'll go, but I've pledged to document it, and document it I will.
How are your goals looking though, nearly a month in? Are you 'winning' - are they challenging enough? Too challenging?

Writing Goals for 2009

Well, it's that time again, isn't it? The time when we sit down and gather our thoughts . . . reflect over what we have done in the past year and set goals for the coming year. I can't say that they are resolutions, I don't know if I like that word or not, I much prefer the term "goals".

I try to set business goals that are specific. Like $1000 per month. But since I have sold these two books, I have to look at my goals differently. I can't hit the $1000 a month because I don't have the time to write the extra articles. But with my book proposals I can average $1000 a month, it's just paid in lump sums.

Also, I have goals to set at my full time sales job. I'm a sales manager and I work with a team of 9 salespeople. My portfolio does about $1,000,000 in sales per year and it definitely takes some planning to accomplish.

We do something called KSS. Something you are going to Keep/Start/Stop. But it's too vague for my writing.

I need something specific, a goal to hit each week. Or even goals. I've long since stopped querying (not enough time, too much to do!) and I worry that I won't have time to actually write the articles I query.

What about you? Do you have specific writing related goals? Care to share?

Goals and Plans and ... oh hush up God, I can hear you laughing...

I know that I'm a planner, I'm all about Making a Plan and following it. Or, rather, not so much about following it, as having an End Goal in mind and focusing on it.

Lately though I've felt rather aimless. We're paying down our debt and living frugally... but it doesn't seem like there's a real goal in mind.

So DH and I sat down and wrote some goals. Then we crossed off the ones that we couldn't BOTH agree to work on together.

You'll note that "Heather wants to have another baby" was vetoed.

Grumble grumble.

So was my Photography Course. But, going to a writer's conference was not, as long as I paid for it with my writing money. Which, duh, I was going to do anyway since "Make $1000 a month writing" was up there.

I'm very focused on making some more money writing at the moment because of our debt situation. I just need to kick it up a notch. For about 3 years I've consistently made $1000 per month writing, but with the two books... I've backed off. Now I want to take on just a smidge of extra work and up my income.

I think DH and I agreed on a few major goals: me writing from home full time, us owning a house, him getting a good job that he can retire from in 15-20 years. I don't ever want to retire from writing.

Sell another book was on there too, I think I have more proposals in me, and one that has a pretty good chance of getting accepted with one of my publishers.

I was partly perturbed at having to 'goal check' with my husband, but really, he is my partner, right? He's the one that has to pick up the slack when I'm on deadline. So maybe it is something I should do more often. He is a Show Me The Money type of guy, he wants to know what kind of ROI we'd be getting with each financial commitment. Sometimes that's a little grey... I think that if it's professional development then there isn't really an ROI... or maybe there is and I just have to think like an investor to figure it out...

Do you set goals for your writing? And if so, what role does your spouse play?

My Goals for 2008

I usually don't wait till the new year to begin my goals, but I do plan ahead. It is common to see me work on my future goals daily. People call me an "overachiever" or "ambitious", something like that. I believe in hard work and spirituality.

I figure if you don't help yourself, who will or why should they?

I do have lots of goals, but I will share just four in random order:

1. Continue to balance motherhood with being a writer. I think that is a rewarding challenge because I love the titles of both.

2. Officially graduate with my master's degree in August 2008. I will have a degree in Foundations of Education. Unofficially, I am already a graduate--I just need to hand in my thesis and walk in the ceremony. Pray and think positive thoughts for me to succeed.

3. Prepare my son for kindergarten when he goes to "big kids school." I plan on being involved in his school, but not to the extent of being like those annoying parents. Being a college instructor allows me to feel with other school educators, so I let them do their job within legal standards.

4. I want to continue to remain an open-minded person with what's best for humanity. I don't discriminate with ethnicity, race, or religion. I believe that this world needs some humanitarian touch. Many still have prejudices that prevent them from being friends with each other. I plan on doing random acts of kindness.

You can call me ideal or dreamer, but hey that is what I strongly believe in. We all can make a difference. People do listen when we speak. People do watch when we move. People do talk when something is done.

Practical Things I Want in 2008...

The last week of the year is when most writers start thinking about yearly goals. The first step, I think, beyond saying, "gee, I should really think of some goals for the coming year," is to think about what you want. Once you know what you want, you can evaluate what you're going to actually work towards and how much time and energy you are willing to put into getting those things. At least, that's how I think of goals.

So this week, Heather asked us to think about what we want in the coming year and try to post about it. Since I've been so terribly deficient in posting lately due to a huge contract I got in October, I'm going to try to post a couple of times about what I want. Some of this will be personal. Some will be silly. Some will be political--Heather, you DID say we could be political. Some, as with this post, will be practical. So, here are the practical things I want in 2008:

1) Get a deep well drilled: not sure how much I've talked here about our recent move, but back in June we bought a 170 year old farm house on roughly 3 acres. It has a shallow well with about 20 feet of usable water. Last summer, we had one of the worst droughts in a hundred years. I had to put the family on severe water restrictions to keep from literally running out of water. I'm not talking about not watering the lawn or washing the car. I mean that I have to wait 2 hours between loads of wash, even though I have a low-water-use front loader. I mean that not everyone can bathe at the same time of day because we can run at most two tubs before we run the well out. It also means sharing bath water. I can't do wash and do dishes and shower in the same morning. The only solution is to dig a deep well--400 feet or so--to the tune of $6000.

2) Get the city house finished and on the market: We still own a house in the city. it's been empty these last 6 months while we work on it. With all the work at the farm, my poor health, and this big contract I got in October work has been terribly slow. We desperately need to get this house on the market and sold or we are going to go under. And of COURSE, the bottom has dropped out of the housing market... again. If we have to rent the house out, we will, but I spent $15K on a new kitchen and I will be pissed to have a tenant take the shine off it. It will never be "NEW" again, ya know?

3) Set plans in motion for the addition to the farm house. The house we bought is pretty big, but it only has one bathroom and a beyond horrible kitchen. The kitchen floor is like the ocean. one of the major joists broke and is on a jack. The subfloor is rotten. The tile and grout were so filthy when we bought it that we tore it out and just live with the subfloor. Yes, it's uncivilized, I agree, but it seems pointless to fix it if we're only going to tear the whole room off the house, yah? The idea is to push the back of the house out about 16 feet, put modern kitchen, baths and systems (we have NO central heat or air) and do some major work to the electrical system (which is in nightmarish shape).

Thinking about how I am going to get those things and which of them is most important, I think that #2 must come at the top of the list. The main obstacles to getting #1 and #3 done is money. Selling the city house, with it's mortgage payment and equity will make #1 happen and #3 possible. So, I should put #2 at the top of my "willing to expend energy" list. Unfortunately, #2 directly conflicts with my #1 career goal (discussed in a later post) which is to keep this big contract I just got and with my abilities to expend energy based on my health problems.

Doesn't mean I can't have these things, just means that I need to figure out how to work it out. I need to go make my kids clean now, because their goal is supposed to be "having a big party on Saturday" and that means "must clean the house," and no one's doing squat unless Mama howls.

Back to howling.

More tomorrow.

Impossible Goals

I got inspired by one of the women in The Writing Mother Yahoo group. She's writing a book about goal-setting, called How to Contact Brad Pitt for Dinner. Yes, great title, right? And it seems like an impossible goal, this contacting Brad Pitt business. But she got his publicist's phone number.

His publicist's phone number. The same one NBC would call if they wanted to contact Brad Pitt for dinner.

And that got me thinking, how impossible is that goal, really? If I had any desire to meet Bradd Pitt (I don't, but don't tell him that), I almost think I might test it. I really don't think it is impossible. People contact him for dinner every day, probably.

So how impossible are our impossible goals? Do you have one? Do you want to win the lottery or become the next Nora Roberts or have your own cable news show? (Hey, Neil Cavuto did it.) How impossible is it? As impossible as flying? As impossible as walking on the moon? Or walking on water? Yes, Jesus did that, but so did Peter. (I'll wait while you go check...)

Someone will be the next Nora Roberts, at least as far as being a highly successful and prolific author goes (no one can replace her as a person). It's inevitable - time passes, people are born, books are written, successes are made.

The interesting thing to me is that when I think of so many things as being possible, the glitter and allure of a lot of them fades. It reminds me to think of what I really want. And most of it I already have.

Let me go bask in this thankfulness for a little while...

Goals Schmoals, I’m 40!

“I’m in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life’s no fun.”
- from “I’m In A Hurry (And Don’t Know Why), by Alabama

Ever feel like that? Running around getting things done but never stopping to enjoy what you’ve done? Never feeling much of a sense of accomplishment?

What’s the point then?

Obviously, there are times when you sacrifice some of the enjoyment part of life so you can achieve some of the accomplishment part. But what about when the achieving something part never ends?

For me, D-day was always my 40th birthday.

Recently, I started to re-read Shirley Kawa-Jump’s (awesome) book, How To Publish Your Articles, and was struck by the first sentence. I apologize in advance for cutting it short, but here’s the part of the sentence that stopped me in my tracks: “Every writer—whether he dreams of getting a single article into print, launching a freelance career, or...”

(“Or what?” you’re screaming at me. Well go get the book! You’ll be glad you did, I promise.)

The very first time I read that sentence, I would have been happy just to have one article published. It would have been a BIG accomplishment!

And that thought brought me freedom.

Thanks in no small part to that book, I did get an article published. Then many more, to the point that I'm working on being a freelancer full time. But I can, if I want or need to, get a different job. I could clean houses. It’s a lovely job. No really! I did it for years while I dreamed of being a writer.

The point is, I have other options for making money. Freelancing might be something I want to do for the joy of it, rather than for the income.

Maybe.

I have assignments right now on my desk waiting to be “accomplished.” I’m going to try to remember the joy of doing them while I’m doing them, and not the pressure.

I used to think what I wanted was to make a living by writing, because I like words. They’re fun.

But will I like them if I do this for a living? We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’ll keep my dustrag near the door.

I hear 40 is an age of self-assurance, of coming into one’s own. I think I like that concept! The pressure’s off, in any case. I get to make new goals for myself.

Hey, I finally understand the purple-hat-wearing women – it isn’t because you no longer have to put on airs to impress others; it’s because your self-imposed deadline is up. You don’t have to put on airs to impress yourself.

By the way, speaking of having fun with words, Linda Formichelli helped me remember how much fun it is to play with words when she started Tom Swifty contest at The Renegade Writer blog. I’m so thankful for the fun, it’s almost not fair that I won the contest too! My winning Swifty:

“I hate writing articles with bullet points,” he said listlessly.

She’s sending me a signed copy of Query Letters That Rock. Woot!

Hey, I’m not too old to rock!

What kind of writing do you do for fun? Is it still fun for you?