Starting New by Jana Richards

Photo by Renáta-Adrienn on Unsplash

It’s a brand-new year! As the calendar turns the page to another January, many of us consider what we want to accomplish in the months ahead. I love thinking about the year ahead and making plans. However, I’ve learned not to get too carried away by setting too many goals or it can bite you in the butt.

Case in point: my goals for 2022. I had some lofty ones. And I had a lot of them. I pushed myself to get them done, so much so that I burned myself out by July. I ended up missing a deadline with my editor, and wasn’t able to finish my Christmas book, CHRISTMAS AT SOLACE LAKE, until well into 2023. 

So, this year as I think about goals, I’m trying to give myself some grace. I don’t want to become overburdened and end up burned out again. That was awful. 

I’m trying to be more practical this year. To combat burnout, I’ve decided to only make goals for one quarter of the year at a time. Right now, I’m only looking as far as the end of March. If I don’t quite reach all my goals by the end of March, my mantra will be “Oh, well. I’ll do that next quarter.”  It doesn’t mean I’m going to slack off. Believe me, I have a lot of things on my list. I’m just giving myself permission to push them back a little if I can’t get everything done at once. 

As everyone knows, we can set all the goals we like, but often the unforeseen happens and upsets all our neat little plans. That’s already happened to me and it’s only mid-January! It’s important to stay flexible and not get upset when things don’t go the way we’d like. Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Photo by Roland Denes on Unsplash

The one thing on my goal-setting list that I won’t change is the actual writing itself. I can push back marketing and promotion goals into the next quarter, but new writing takes precedence over everything. The fun thing is that I get to start this year by writing a brand-new story. So far, I have only the barest of outlines to go by, so it’s a daunting, and slightly terrifying prospect. But it’s also a thrilling one. When beginning a new story no longer excites me, or when it's no longer fun, that’s when I’ll know it’s time to hang up my keyboard.

I’d love to hear about your goals and resolutions for 2024. What’s something on your list?