January is everyone’s favorite time for setting new goals, right? I actually really don’t like making New Year’s Resolutions (come on, you know you don’t either)—because I hate setting myself up to fail, and if there were a statistic on the number of resolutions broken it would be astounding, I’m sure.
And yet I still feel the need to try to set goals this time of year. Sigh. Some of the goals I’m contemplating:
- Better prayer and scripture study—kind of amorphous, isn’t it? But plenty of room for improvement there. I’m aiming for a 30 minute scripture study/prayer time first thing in the morning.
- Run a 5K. There, I said it. Ack. Running a 5K is one of those things that I’ve always kind of wanted to do, even though I hate running. Go figure. I started training today. The race is March 14, if it’s the same weekend it was last year.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables. Notice I am under no obligation to eat less junk 😉 .
- Do more around the house. I don’t mean chores, though I really have got to get on top of those (still recovering from a two-week vacation!). We’ve been in this house for 3 years now and haven’t done a quarter of what we wanted to do with it.
- Write
tonsa reasonable amount. I’m nearing completion on the first draft of my latest manuscript (don’t worry, you didn’t miss the good news—I haven’t published anything yet—I haven’t even submitted anything yet. Accursed, beautiful revisions.). I’d like to get through the first draft of two more this year—and finish those accursed, beautiful revisions on last year’s two manuscripts.
But those aren’t my most important goal this year. The ultimate goal in my life, for this blog, etc., is to be happy with my life—to be fulfilled. I’ve talked before about how “finding” fulfillment is misleading—so is finding happiness. As part of my Christmas trip, I stayed at my sister-in-law’s lovely home, and she had a painting there that said (paraphrased) “We talk about finding happiness when happiness is actually a choice.”
So, resolved, for 2009:
I will CHOOSE happiness.
How do you choose happiness? What are your goals for this year?
6 replies on “Writing Resolutions”
Those are all really good goals. Where is the 5K? If you want someone to run it with, I’m in. Sometimes it helps if you know someone else is going to run it. Let me know! 🙂
5K! Wow!!! How far is that in real life? 😉
Great goals. I am back to trying to be a worthy receptacle of the gift of charity. It never faileth!
I think happiness is the best goal!
I want to run a 5K, too! Most of the good races are down in your county, though. I’m not looking forward to dragging myself out of bed early enough to drive down there and beat myself up in a race…but I may end up doing it if I can’t find a doable race up here.
I love the eat more fruits and veggies resolution:)
Great article on goals. Reflecting on our past year and noticing our changes or inability to change can be beneficial. Setting goals for the new year is often a tradition and yet can be great if we are clear on what we want and accountable for obtaining it. The biggest aha comes when we finally accept the responsibility for our own change.
[…] goals, resolutions I didn’t set a ton of goals (or resolutions) last year (they’re on my personal blog, if you’d like to see all of them). In writing, here’s what I wanted to accomplish in […]