Thursday, January 2, 2014

SETTING GOALS


Happy New Year! Please join us in welcoming RWA/NYC's new Chapter President --Ursula Renée.


SETTING GOALS
By Ursula Renée

At the end of the year, when I review the goals I had hoped to accomplish in the past 365 days, I celebrate my successes. However, the goals that were not achieved are not considered failures. Instead, they are reevaluated so I can understand why I came up short. Sometimes I discovered that despite my intentions to complete a goal, life had other plans for me. There were times when family, work and life had to take priority. Other times, I realized that I set too many goals for the year.

Despite my desire to reach for the stars, the moon and the sun, there is only so much time in a day. After all my other commitments have been attended to, I may only have time for the stars and moon. Reaching for the sun will have to wait until later. There are a few times when I realize that my heart was not in the goal that I set. Then there are the goals that were pushed aside when something else catches my attention, like the year I discovered stone carving and decided to focus on sculpting instead of painting.

Once I realize the reason I did not achieve a goal, I use the knowledge to help me create my goals for the New Year. Some of the older goals will end up on the new list and others will be placed back in the bucket list for the future. A few that I have decided are no longer important to me will be eliminated.

In the end, even if you do not believe in setting New Year’s Resolutions, set them; create the goals to give yourself something to work towards. At the end of the year, you can celebrate your accomplishments or, after analyzing the goals that were not achieved, have a better understanding of what keeps you from succeeding.#



Ursula Renée is the new President of RWA/NYC. She recently sold SWEET JAZZ, a historical romance, to The Wild Rose Press. When she is not writing, she enjoys photography, drawing and stone carving. Visit her at www.ursularenee.com.

 

3 comments:

  1. Ursula, this is such a clear and reasonable way to approach resolutions, goals and evaluating how you did when looking back at the year. I am notoriously wont to be over-optimistic and always have way too much in my "to do" column, leaving me to remind myself when I see how much I didn't accomplish that I was biting off more than I could chew to begin with. And each year unexpected things have arisen that force you to completely re-vamp your plans anyway. So my goal this year is to plan REASONABLY, but to also be prepared to have to completely switch gears should a goal come to fruition that requires other projects or plans to be shifted to the back burner. Here's to those wonderful "surprises" for all of us in 2014!

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  2. How much nicer is it to set a few goals and achieve them (which leaves time for more goal setting) than to set too many goals and fail in them all? It's good to strive, and good to push ourselves, but within the bounds of reality and (self)kindness! :-)

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  3. So true. Great way to look at goals!

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