Tag Archives: personal goals

January 8, 2020 · 3:46 am

#2020 Long and Short Reviews Wednesday Challenge – Week 1, 1.8.20~

It’s a brand new year, a new decade, and a new 52 weeks of this fabulous weekly blog share!!!! First topic of the new year? My goals for 2020.

Oy, I’ve got a bunch, I tell ya. I need to up my game in my writing career, in my personal life, and in my health, so…here goes the top ones:

Professionally, I want to :

~Write a minimum of 1000 words before I start my actual day – what this means is that while I’m still in jammies, I write. Once 1000 words is achieved I get to get dressed, and do the adulting things I need to – like gym, laundry, etc. When they are done, I can write more.

~Finish 3-4 complete manuscripts in 2020; self-pub one of them. A lofty goal.

~have 2 books traditionally published this year.

~Double my book sales this year through organic exposure – like blogging here!!

Personally, I want to:

~practice kindness more and learn not to be so judgmental of things, events, and people.

~ along with not being so judgmental, I want to stop knee-jerking my decisions and responses when something happens. I need to take more time to listen, think things through, and then after consideration, say what I want to say and act accordingly.

Healthwise, I want to:

~ hit the Gym 6-7 times per week. No excuses. I’ve got a wedding I need to be camera ready for in May 2020.

~ Eat better, and by better I mean, cut out the crap!! All of it.

~lose all the weight I’ve gained since I had my rotator cuff surgery.

Pray for me, peeps, that these things are doable for me, ‘cuz I need the help to change!!

Now, let’s see what some of the other writers in this blog challenge want to do for 2020:  L&SR1.8.20

~until next week ~ Peg

And if you’re looking for me in 2020, I’m usually here:

Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me// Triber// Book Me // Watch me

And don’t forget on 1.13.20, my first Romantic Suspense book drops – I’m so excited about this and it helps fill one of my professional goals so, score! Hee hee
A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK
Book 1

Blurb:

Elite bodyguard and P.I. Rick Bannerman’s job is to protect. He doesn’t get emotional with his clients, but when a woman from his past is threatened, his next job becomes personal.

Family lawyer Abigail Laine is the target of a client’s vengeful husband, but refuses Rick’s offer of protection. He walked away from her four years ago, and she swore to forget him.

Now her reluctance to accept his help could cost Abby her life.

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December 31, 2018 · 12:30 am

A look ahead….

Seems appropriate that I title this one a look ahead when the last blog was about looking back.

I’m nothing if not consistent, peeps. Hee hee

I’ve got some career goals for 2019 that I want to accomplish, in addition to some personal ones that need doing, as well.

First, a little backstory. This is me, afterall.

In November 2018 you  may remember I attended a conference where Jack Canfield was the primary speaker. He spoke about many things – all of them wonderful – but one thing he said stuck with me and resounded so completely, I’ve already begun putting its intention into use. Jack said, “You can’t have an uncluttered, focused life and mind, if your workspace and environment is cluttered, filled with detritus, and unfocused.”

Can I just tell you how that was a Come to Jesus moment for me?!

Since the day I arrived home from that conference I have been culling, cleaning, reorganizing, and reprioritizing my life, my environment, and my workspace. I started with the closets. All 15 of them. I’ve moved on to the bedrooms. After that, the kitchen, bathrooms, and then the living spaces will all be refreshed, culled of unnecessary items, and cleaned.

Yes, it’s exhausting work, and yes I find myself stopping at times to remember why I have this object, or obsess about whether or not I still need it – just in case! But then I remember what the point of this exercise in selective personal item culling is all about and I get on with it.

So, everything should be done by 12.31.18

On 1.1.19, in my newly refreshed, reorganized and restructured workplace/office, I will being writing the next 2 books on my TBWritten list and start planning out the next 3.

About those goals for 2019: here they are, in no apparent order.

1.Write a minimum of 1000 words before you start your actual day – what this means is that while I’m still in jammies, I write, Once 1000 words is achieved I get to get dressed, and do the adulting things I need to – like gym, laundry, etc. When they are done, I can write more.

2. Finish 2 complete manuscripts in 2019; have 2 published that are already completed.

3.Meditate for 20 minutes every day. No excuses. No matter what.

4. Gym 4-6 times per week.

5. Eat better, and by better I mean, cut out the crap!!

6. Blog no more than 2-3 times per week. I blogged upwards of 5 times a week in 2018 and it just got to be too much for me.

7. Perform daily aspirations re: career goals and personal issues. – these are private, so don’t ask!

I think that’s a good start, don’t you. We’ll see how far they get, which ones drop off by the wayside, and which ones become habits-for-life.

The happiest of New Years, peeps. ~Peg

If you’re looking for me while I’m culling, here I am:Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// BookMe // Monkey me //Watch me

and here’s the link to my TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAMN BOOK podcast interview, just in case you missed it: TMAYDB

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January 1, 2018 · 10:24 am

My 2018 #ReadingChallenge

It’s that time of year again…Goodreads is going to start their yearly reading challenge and I need to set my book goal for the next 365 days.

Last year I did really well. My goal was 150 books and I managed to read 168.  This year I don’t know that I’ll have as much time I can devote to reading. Since I’m a Netgalley reviewer I have a certain number of books that I review for the site, plus all the ones I read on my own – which are many, let me tell you!

Reading challenges have been dear and near to my heart ( and mind!) since I was a kid. I was that student who never balked when the teacher gave out summer reading lists and challenges, and then required proof you read anything in the form of book reports due day 1 of the new school year.

Yeah, I know. Book nerd was a term invented for me.

As an adult, I still love the thought of a reading challenge and the rush that blows through me whenever I can add another finished book to the tally.

So……200 seems like a few too many. Maybe halfway between 150 and 200, so I think I’m going to set my challenge at 175 books this year.

Check back in 2019 and see if I’m still alive and if my eyes haven’t fallen out of my head yet!

And do an author a favor: sign up for my newsletter.

There was a link when you first opened this blog piece, so pleasepleaseplease ( yes, I’m not too proud to beg) sign up. The first one goes out on 1.7.18 and there are some freebies and goodies attached to signing up this month. I promise!!!

While I’m readingin 2018 you can find me here: Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me

 

 

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November 7, 2017 · 10:12 am

#NYCStrong… Marathon day and every day

I had an emotional Sunday and the tears still swell up from time to time, but I want to write today about being a mother. Just as an FYI, I’m going to be waxing rhapsodic about my fabulous daughter, so if you were expecting something about writing or NaNo related,…sorry. Maybe tomorrow.

My lovely daughter ran her first full 26.2 mile marathon on Sunday in NYC. She’s run half marathons but never a full 26-er and one so grueling as the 5 borough trek. The marathon came on the heels of the terror attack that hit lower Manhattan last week and as a mama bear, my gut reaction was to tell her not to run it. I didn’t. I knew it would do no good if I did.

Let me ‘esplain.

My daughter is brave, brilliant, and beautiful. She’s also kind and considerate to all she meets and all she knows. She is civic minded, opinionated but fair, and is able to express her views in an articulate, sensible, opinion-swaying manner. Saying that, the girl has a backbone forged in titanium and is no body’s fool, doormat, or patsy. If I tried to get her not to run it would have been an effort in utter futility.

When she decided to run the NYC marathon as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood I was several things. Proud was the first and most overwhelming. But I was also a nervous mama. My husband ran the NYC marathon 150 years ago ( heehee! Not quite, but it feels like it sometimes) so I knew how arduous the race course was. Add in that the weather in NYC on Sunday was horrendous – a chilly drizzly mist ALL DAY LONG accompanied by some spells of torrential rain, and I was worried about her health and well being. My nerves got the better of me on several occasions and I had to talk myself off a ledge or wind up in the medical tent myself – and I wasn’t running! My concerns about her health are not just nervous Nelly ones. This is the child who was born with an initial Apgar of 0, then 2 because she’d been laying on her umbilical cord and no one knew. This is the tween who was involved in a horrific car crash with me when she was 11 and had flashbacks for years about it and her injuries. And this is the young woman who lost more than half her blood when she suffered 2 arterial tears from a routine tonsillectomy.

I had my concerns for her health and safety, and baby, they were valid.

When she crossed the finish line and her friends and I all found our way to one another I completely lost it. I’m not the crier in my family – I’m the one who stays strong and focused when all others around me a  bawling. Not this time. I actually think strangers thought I was having a nervous breakdown when they passed us. All of the emotions I’d been holding in for the days leading up to the marathon – worry about another terror attack, concern about would she be able to finish the race, would she have any physical problems  or injuries( 26 miles, folks!), how was she feeling mentally while she did this challenging thing…All of the worry, concern, dread, and yes, terror, leached out in full-blown cry fest.

It was a release. A real release. Was I embarrassed? No. Was I afraid of being made fun of by strangers? Hell, no. What I was was relieved and so stratospherically proud of my little girl ( who, btw does not like being called that!) that I simply couldn’t contain myself. She didn’t mind the tears. It was a release for her too! She finished in the time she’d predicted, upright, and had done it for a cause that is near and dear to her soul. Without any undue or long-lasting injuries.

I’ve made many child-rearing mistakes during my daughter’s life. Said things I could cut my tongue out today for. Put undue and sometimes insurmountable expectations on her for achievement. Mistakes that, when I think about them today, should have forced this lovely creation to the dark side.

And still, with all those mistakes,  she managed to grow toward the light, into the most wonderful person I know, and my daily inspiration in how to live a good, caring, open-minded life.

Sunday, I was reminded why I wanted so badly to be a mom in the years before I was one, why I wished every night to be a good one, and prayed for a child of my heart.

And boy, wasn’t I the lucky one to get my wish…

If you need me, I’ll be here:Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// Book Me

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November 3, 2016 · 8:35 am

NaNoWriMo2016 – day 3

nano

Another day….another thousand words.

So, how are you feeling this morning? Are your fingers still flying across the laptop? Are the words forming in your head faster than you can get them on the page ( or the screen!)? Are your characters pushing you, speaking to you, compelling you to get their story out to the word?

The beginning of every NaNo challenge is heady. You’ve got all this internal….STUFF… begging to come out, and you allow it to, thankfully. But think about the real reason you’re doing the challenge this year. It isn’t just to get you to finish a manuscript, or help you make a deadline. Those things are great, but NANOWRIMO is much more than that…so, hear me out.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is not simply to get you to write  50,000 words in a month. That’s a big part of it, sure. But the real underlying challenge is to instill in you the HABIT of writing every day. Of making a commitment to yourself to sit down and log in some scheduled, uninterrupted time for you to write.  We are all busy, have challenging lives, kids, dogs, life issues, you fill in the words that make it hard for you to do what you love.

But…NaNo wants you to understand the necessity of making writing every single day the norm, the routine, the matter of practice of your life.

What defines a habit? Webster’s Dictionary states it like this: a habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially something that is hard to give up. See those words, regular  and practice? And the ones that follow them – something that is hard to give up? This is what writing should be to you  – something you can’t give up on or let slide, no matter what.  When you take the time every single day to devote a few minutes or an hour, or several hours, to doing something you love – namely, writing – soon it will become so ingrained in you to do so, that NOT writing isn’t even an option or a thought in your head anymore.

My website tag is WRITING IS MY OXYGEN. And this is the truth. To me, writing every day is as essential and necessary to me as is breathing. If I couldn’t breathe every day, I would surely die. Well, if I don’t write every day, I feel as if I can’t breathe – emotionally, spiritually, and yes, even physically.

I once heard famed and uber-amazeballs author NORA ROBERTS liken writing every day to a muscle. She said (paraphrasing, here) “Writing is like a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, work it, use it frequently, you loose tone and substance. The muscle isn’t as strong, so you’re not as strong. You don’t function as well as you should or can.” That statement resonated with me on such a high level. And really, Nora Roberts should know about being a strong writer – the chick has over 400 books in print! She walks the walk and talks the talk like no other writer out there. It’s obvious she exercises her writing muscles daily.

So, today when you sit down to write, remember how you feel as you put your fingers to the keys. That sense of happiness, of fulfillment, of simple joy you get as you create those words on the page. Remember that feeling of elation. You’ll want to feel it again, and again, and again, and…. every day.

nano3

 

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