Setting Goals, Part Two

[elise_rasha]

Shortly after I started this writing blog, I'd written an entry about setting daily writing goals. I'd written the entry as a means of helping others and to help myself. I figured if I set goals for each of the stories I had in progress at the time, I could get them finished and query them out. At that time, I was looking at traditional publishing. I self-published as a means of desperation - my only source of income was food stamps, and I was buying a crap ton of soda to drink so I could also have the ten cent deposit back. That's how I was paying for my personal hygiene products and my medication.

Now mind you, I need to get back on that, setting daily writing goals and have them written where I can see them. I had a piece of paper with the titles and what I wanted to accomplish with them at that time.

I say I need to get myself back on that track for the following reason:

Listing your goals WORKS.

As many of you might remember, I went through a lot of hard times over the past several years. Long-term unemployment, no car, living with family, living in an area that, although quite beautiful in terms of nature, was quite suffocating. I'd moved to the Seattle area, to Philadelphia, to Tulsa (for a grand total of two days), before I was back in that same area, living with different family members than before. This was written in the summer of 2015.

It was while I was living with my (now late) grandmother, that I'd taken a piece of paper, created some columns, and gave each column a title.

At the top of the paper was the word GOALS

The first column was Short-term. The second column was Intermediate. The third was Long-term.

I recently found this paper, and I can tell you that, in the short-term column, I had/have fifteen items listed. These are those fifteen items.

1 - Save for rent
2 - Save for car
3 - Save for ISBNs
4 - Save for laptop
5 - Driver's license
6 - Cell phone
7 - Refine and publish The Sons of Thor
8 - Move to Lansing
9 - Get some cats, a hamster, turtle
10 - Go to YoumaCon
11 - Job hunt in Lansing
12 - Apartment hunt in Lansing
13 - Change name
14 - Write, refine, and publish Ravensrealm
15 - Write, refine, and publish Snow in Olympus

The Intermediate and Long-term Goals are much shorter. Intermediate is to pay off my debt. I'd wanted to move to St. Augustine, Florida, at the time. I'm trying to wean myself from processed sugar and to eat healther (I work for Ihop - easier said and to write down than done). I still want to start a family (though I'm not actively looking for a partner - don't even ask). I want to finish my education. And I want to learn Greek, French (started to do already), Italian, Russian, German, Japanese, and Hungarian. (I'm tossing Spanish in because I work with a lot of Hispanics, too, and I love learning new languages.)

Of my long-term goals, well, I'm working on my career as an author, and I'm working on my personal spiritual knowledge, development, and growth. Still working on eating healthier, but I have nowhere near the money for a home or for retirement. Oddly, I never put anything down on raising the family, which is to be understood. I start one, I'm keeping it, and I'm going to do everything I can to ensure that my child(ren) are prepared for this world. Once I have my family started, that is.

I can't believe I still have this list, and it's so simple in nature. So very simple.

But I achieved many of the short-term goals in the past couple of years. Before I'd moved to Tulsa again, I had my driver's license back, a new cell phone number (that I've had since then), and a laptop. I actually did look for places to live in and to work at in Lansing, and I'd published The Sons of Thor. Within a week and a half of arriving in Tulsa, I had a job, and I was saving up to move out again and for the ISBNs. I purchased my first block before the year was over. Last summer, I purchased my first car in a few years (my 1994 Tempo died in 2009), and it was literally the car of my dreams (a Ford Escape, and she's blue).

I actually did save up to move out of Tulsa, too. As many of you might remember, there was a short stint living in New Orleans. I ended up back in Tulsa, but I still did that. (I need to get started again. Tulsa is not a big tourist town so, unless there's something big going on near the Ihop where I work, summertime is kind of quiet.)

I still haven't changed my legal name yet, but I will. I'm making plans to go to YoumaCon this fall. I don't have my hamster or a turtle (I have looked at turtles), but my mom and stepdad have two dogs and a cat - the second cat in the house belongs to my sister's boyfriend, but the cat lives here (she likes it here and wants to be the only cat in the house). Ravensrealm is due out later this year, and I will get Snow in Olympus out sometime either next year or in 2019. (Arc of Fantasy and another project are eating my soul.)

It shocks me, amazes me, and humbles me that I managed to reach 7 of those 15 short-term goals in the last two years. I may not be living in Lansing or saving up for St. Augustine, but I'm also no longer living in Cadillac. That is something, and that is inspiring. Yes, they were simple goals, but, when you've gone for even a couple of years with no work and a dying hope of things ever changing for you, it's life affirming and life changing.

So set your goals, my fellow writers. What do you want to accomplish? Set your short-term goals. Follow them with your intermediate and long-term goals, and you'll find the only person who can stop you is you.

A reminder, Ravensrealm will be published November 4 of this year. (It's also the same weekend as YoumaCon!)

Thanks for sticking with me, guys! Have a great rest of your Monday!

Also, thanks to the kind person who left a review of Portal to Gaming on Amazon! Here it is, guys!

"Really fun book that held my attention! The only reason I take a star off, is the book felt like while initially it had it's own plot hinting at things, in the end it was just an introduction to the sequel. That's what this book is- introducing you the to characters that has those actual story begin in the sequel. It doesn't stand on it's own as a stand alone title. Don't let that fully deter you though, as it is still a very fun book!

I liked the Norse and Greek Mythology angle of the title as well as how it has the whole VR MMO aspect, which made you as a reader question if the MMO world itself was a real place that the avatars were visiting!"

(I've asked the reader to edit for spoilers as the blurb never mentions any Greek and Norse connections.)