Do you make goals for yourself?

I used to make excessive and elaborate goals for myself at the beginning of each new year.

Many were health-related (from both a physical and mental health perspective), some were professional goals, and some were as simple as “have more fun”.

What I’ve discovered is that to be attainable, a goal has to be realistic, specific, and time-limited.

Which may explain why my goal of “Meeting George Clooney at Lake Como for champagne someday never worked out.

So, for 2018, I’ve made a list of specific writing and personal (though not too personal!) goals for myself:

• Read 150 books (oh my!)
• Continue to read and take whatever courses I can get my hands on in order to improve my writing
• Organize joint events with other authors in June, both to promote the launch of THE FRAME UP and frankly to meet some of my author friends in real life!
• Do more school visits – I love talking to kids about books and reading and writing
• Edit my next book for Greenwillow Books and complete at least one more middle grade novel
• Stop being shy about promoting myself and my books
• See my agent Lauren in person again!
• Stay in my own lane. In other words, I’m going to try really hard to do me this year and NOT try to do anyone else!
• Fall in love with writing again! This may mean giving myself permission to work on little side projects that will never see the light of day!
• Be joyful and remember what a gift it is that people are willing to read my work
• More giveaways!

Next week is my birthday week, so stay tuned, I’m going to come up with a fantastic January book giveaway for you!

Any goals you’re willing to share? I’d love to hear!