Falling Short of My Goal . . . . Wasn't it Great!

Ah, the end of another year approaches.  I could talk about New Year's Resolutions, but I'm not big on those.  Instead, what I try to do is to set a couple of goals throughout the year, which I know may sound like making resolutions, but I don't view it the exact same way.

So, this past year my goal was to complete my novel.  Well, I fell short, because it's not done.  But I don't view this as an entire loss.  In fact, given my cross-country move, the new job and all of life's other ups and downs, the fact that I reached 61,345 words (88% of my goal), is pretty awesome.  Could I have gotten to 70,000 and finished if I had focused more?  Absolutely.  But instead of beating myself up, I'm choosing to look at this as a positive learning process.  After all, I achieved some pretty great things this year.  I attended a couple of online writing seminars giving me additional knowledge, insight and tools to help me with my craft.  I also managed to publish six new flash fiction pieces, one poem, and have three more pieces slated for 2014.  Not bad.

But now, what to do about that novel . . . . . well, guess what this year's goal is?  Yep, finish that book!  Once again, I will gladly accept all the encouragement I can get to help propel me towards this goal and keep me accountable during this undertaking.  I'm actually quite excited to climb back on that horse in 2014 and explore the new paths this adventure is going to travel upon.  Will one of my characters surprise me by going in a different direction, fall short of my expectations and make me rewrite several scenes, or develop into a fuller, richer character and steal the show?  I can't wait to find out!

So what goals will you be setting this year or what great things did you learn from your mistakes and procrastination this year?  Try looking at it in a positive way to see those little achievements.  After all, life is one big learning experience, and when you gain knowledge from those experiences, you gain invaluable success!

Cheers everyone!  Wishing you all the very best in 2014!