Welcome 2019!
Who doesn’t love a new year?
I know I do.
It’s a blank slate. A time where you can set new goals, be excited about the year ahead of you, and more importantly put the past behind you.
Last year I didn’t set goals, as I wrote about in my end of 2018 post, and it was a mistake. The feelings of stress and overwhelm that kept me from setting goals didn’t go away. Probably because I didn’t set any goals to improve my quality of life. Let’s face it. Life won’t get less stressful unless you do something about it. Sitting around watching Netflix, as much fun as it is, isn’t going to make your life better.
If only it did my life would be awesome!
By setting goals this year, I feel I’m already off to a better start!
2019 Goals Simply my life – I thought a lot about this the last half of 2018, and it is hard to quantify because so many areas in my life are complicated. While not all of them can be simplified many can be. I need to control what I can and not worry about the rest.
Areas, where I need to simplify, are:
Finances – set up everything possible on automatic payment and have money automatically moved into different savings accounts instead of manually transferring it.
Home clutter/organization – 2 years ago I bought a minimalist course and never did it — big shocker. I’m not sure I can ever get my family to that level, but I would like to have a house that’s not consistently a train wreck.
Saying no to adding obligations – This is a big one. JUST SAY NO! I need to stay focused and only spend my time on the things that will get me to where I want to go.
Set boundaries with my kids and myself – my kids have no concept of my work and the time it takes. I hate telling them to leave me alone, or I can’t do something because I have to work, but there needs to be a balance. If I am stressed because they won’t let me get my work done it doesn’t help anyone. Definitely a drawback of working from home.
Write a bucket list of things I want to do with my kids. Specifically with Caden who will graduate from high school in December. He’s so close to leaving me and starting his own life I don’t want to miss out.
Branch out in my fiction writing from mysteries to writing romance/women fiction. I’m updating the covers on a few of my old cozy mysteries, I’m writing 2 more books this year in the Presley mystery series, and I have 3 women fiction/romance books outlined. It will be a busy writing year.
Make Writing Warriors Collective, my author education site, more self-study. I spent so much time last year creating a repository of content, conducting weekly Facebook live events, and doing education webinars.
While I love interacting with fellow writers, it took a lot away from my actual writing. My goal was to be very hands-on like I am in teaching my college courses. But what I found out is the majority don’t want that. I guess it’s not that they don’t want that, but rather they like the idea but don’t have the time for live scheduled things.
While I had a decent membership who signed up for it, they didn’t take advantage of all the live components, and it wasn’t a good use of my time which frustrated me. I am tweaking how it works to make it more manageable for me but also a great resource for my members. #simplify
Lose the 30 lbs I’ve gained in the last 18 months with healthy eating and exercise. If I can manage my stress and overwhelm this will be easier. I love to eat my feelings.
While this is just a high-level overview, I can assure you that I am working on making the goals SMART and that I have realistic and manageable actions to get me to the goals. I may have to cut down on my reality tv watching, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
What are your goals for 2019?
