My birthday was yesterday. I celebrated sedately, ordering dinner from an Italian restaurant my husband and I like and cake from a bakery I hadn’t tried before. I also voted in a municipal election and met with a banker. It was a decent day, though I doubt this becomes one of my most memorable birthdays. Of course, by writing about it, I make it more likely that I will remember something of the occasion.
Because my birthday comes right after the end of the first quarter of the year, I tend to spend a little time on or near the date thinking about how I’m doing on the goals I’ve set for the year. This year, I am doing well on my non-writing goals, but I’m behind on the goals I’ve set for my writing work.
On my major writing goals for 2022, here is where I stand:
- Edit and publish my eighth novel. My stretch goal was to finish the rough draft of my work-in-progress by now. But I’m only at 83,000 words. I have at least another 30,000 to go, maybe 40,000. So it will take me at least through May to finish the rough draft. Then there is the months-long editing and winnowing process. That puts a 2022 publication date for this novel in doubt. Still, I should be happy that I have written over 60,000 words in three months.
- Update my website. I’ve made a few changes, though I’ve also had to make a few repairs necessitated by plugin updates that haven’t worked well on the site, and some of the repairs still need further work. I’m also researching full site editing themes in WordPress. But I’m not ready to take the leap to a new theme yet. It’s not so much future posts that I worry about, but what will happen to the 900-plus posts I’ve already written. So, nothing major has happened yet on this goal.
- Continue this blog past its tenth anniversary. That happened in January 2022. An easy goal accomplished.
- Work on group marketing with other authors. Other Write Brain Trust authors and I have continued the Of Books and Nooks website where readers and authors can connect. We discuss other marketing possibilities as well. And I’m working with a group of historical fiction writers through the Heartland Chapter of the Historical Novel Society. Some progress—adequate for the first quarter of the year.
In other words, I’m basically on track, except for the novel. But to me that is the most important writing goal I have.
Part of my problem, of course, is that I set too many goals. These are just my major writing goals. I have other minor writing goals, and a whole slew of non-writing goals related to family, friends, finances, and personal development.
But this year my personal responsibilities have mushroomed more than I expected. There are family members with health problems I need to attend to. I have taken on bookkeeping for my husband’s farms as well as for my mother-in-law’s accounts and her tax preparation. These have been major time sucks for the first quarter of the year, though I hope it will settle down after April 18.
Still, as I worried—as I often do—about how far behind I am on my goals, it dawned on me that goals are less important than priorities. My goals are merely benchmarks for whether I am sticking to my priorities, tangible signs of progress. What is really important is whether I am managing my life in accordance with my priorities.
My priorities—also set at the beginning of each year, though they tend not to vary much from year to year—are my health, my family, our finances, and only then my writing. If my priorities are in order, then I should be able to relax on my goals, because sticking to priorities means I adjust my goals as new aspects of my priorities develop.
For example, keeping the farm accounts up to date and managing my mother-in-law’s taxes. Those relate to my priorities of family and finances. And they are more important than my writing.
Hard to accept, perhaps, when I enjoy writing and want to continue to improve my craft and publish more books. But my priorities must be my guiding light as I set my to-do list each day.
How are you doing on your 2022 goals a quarter of the way through the year? And are you sticking with your priorities?
I’ve always enjoyed writing, from early childhood until my current status as senior citizen of 66. Never seriously considered writing a novel, although a friend who has been a newspaper reporter / editor has urged me to do so. (Sounds like too much WORK to be enjoyable to me.)
I have been a blogger on homelessness and sundry subjects since 2009, and I was a year-round homeless camper on the outskirts of Boulder, CO for a decade, until a heart attack and other health issues forced me into a long-term care facility. (I hate it!)
Good luck to you . . .
And good luck to you also, Max.