Monday Musings: Goals

Goals, it’s that time of year, isn’t it?

Who has already abandoned their New Year’s Resolution?

I’m getting on up there in years;  I learned not to make those a couple of decades ago.

But this time last year, after a very challenging year in 2024; at the beginning of 2025 I lost two dear writer friends, and my 15 year old part-of-the-family dog, all within a 24 hour period. That hit me so hard. I won’t focus on the dog, who was my buddy, I liked being around her sometimes more than I liked being around my kids (she never argued with me).

Instead, I want to focus on my writer friends. Both of them died (same day, different states–still so very  unbelievable) with stories they wanted to tell. Stories they were writing. Planning to sell, publish (one was a traditional author, the other was self-published). At the time I’d been unable to write for a decade. Just blank. Characters deserted me, no words would form.

But something about those tragic and unexpected deaths really hit me hard (ok, they both had cancer, but it was both out-of-the-blue kind of hit-hard, aggressive cancer, I barely learned they had cancer before they passed). I realized in a stark, undeniable way, that no one is guaranteed tomorrow, and if I wanted to tell my stories, I better start digging them out of my reluctant brain.

Because of the challenges I’d had in 2024, challenges which really forced me to face how my life had imploded almost a decade earlier, I was already in counseling, thank goodness. Somehow the deaths of my very dear friends shook up my brain and my characters started slogging their way through the morass.

As I was working through my issues and getting to know the people in my head again, I rewatched Sarra Cannon’s Heartbreathings HB90 course I had bought years earlier, as well as a new one I purchased called Your Path Forward. The pictures above are the things I created after those classes. I’d had a kanban board for years with all my pretty post-it notes that never got moved down, but in 2025, I clearly moved half of them. Ok, so it’s supposed to be a kanban board for every quarter (per her HB90 course–the 90 stands for every 3 months), but even though it’s going to take me two years to get through it, I’m making progress and I’m happy. The little notebook of index cards is from the course Your Path Forward. It prevents decision fatigue. When I finish one thing instead of wasting time in analysis paralysis– the frantic what do I need to work on next?? I already have my plan in place.

So, it’s going slower than I wanted. 4 books written, really rough drafts, the editing is challenging my brain, but you know, slow going is better than no going.

I hope my confession has helped you if you’ve always failed at resolutions. Big dreams are attainable, but sometimes they need to be broken down into small, bite-sized goals. A friend once gave me a card with a picture of a man trying to move a mountain . . . one rock at a time. Eventually, he will succeed.

I hope this new year gives you the energy to go for your dreams. And succeed.

Let me know if you still set New Year’s resolutions?