My 23rd Anniversary and Goal Results

Here is a super quick flash on how I did this month with my goals! It is my Anniversary after all and so I need to be about celebrating it with my honey!! But first a brief check in on how my goal results turned out.

So I got in 3 posts a week for a month, counting this one~ since I started on the 4th of July, I think that's fair. It was fun to post so much!

I got my writing goals accomplished. I even slightly modified I achieved what I set out to do! Yahoo!

And as for adding followers, I got 25 plus new followers this month but fell short of my goal of 100 by 16. But that is ok, I plan to get them soon enough. If any one has any cool ideas on how to do this, please I am all for hearing them.

I ran out of time to work on my blog that way when I spent a week visiting my family. They wanted a lot of my time and were jealous of my computer and on line time either on my blog or on my WIP or on email. OH well!! No biggie.

So I need to devise some new goals for the month of Aug and when I do, I will let you know what they are! If you have any goals that you are looking to achieve, let me hear about them and we can spend the month of Aug working on them together!

checking in late late late

A quick little blurb to check in and be accountable to myself. So this week counting this posting, I got in my 3 blogging posts that I was aiming for. But I still have three to do by Tues this coming week. I will do it! Just you wait and see.

As for extra followers I was able to add another, leaving me with 17 left to meet my goal. I hope I make it.

And for writing, with all the traveling and demands from my family and some minor crisis's along the way that rose up, I wasn't able to get my numbers in like I wanted to, but I did write non the less. I wrote about 7 pages. Only half of what I was aiming for, but grateful that I could get them in. At least I was writing and that is all that counts.

Considering that I haven't even had the chance to exercise and I feel like a major slug since I got here early sun morning even though I planned to get to it at least 3 times while I was gone, and have yet to get out beyond basic walking in the grocery store, which isn't walking but really walk pausing; I'm amazed I got more than two words strung together at a time.

This all being said, I do have the remainder of this week and into Tues to get things done. I plan to get at least another 7 pages written, since I will be driving most of Sunday, and meeting the demands of my family on vacation( my hubby is not with me, and neither are my two oldest boys, if that tells you anything) I think that will be a stretch, still, I don't want to end up not writing enough for next week and facing Karaoke.

So three more posts, and 7 more pages and 17 more followers is the goal, I hope i make it!!
well, off now to try and meet them! Cross those fingers for me once again!

Accountability

For me accountability to just myself seems to be a problem. I really need to have others to be accountable to, other wise I find every excuse in the book to not do something and procrastination and I become tighter friends. Sometimes you just need that extra little push, that kick that gets you moving in a forward direction again, even if it is the smallest of steps forward, at least it is progress.

Checking in once a week on my goals has made me more productive in more ways besides the goals I have outlined in my blog. Weird how that happens, but I'm glad it has.

Just so you know, I have made great progress in my outlined goals, in all three of them I have made great strides so far. And it is sort of funny how events that have transpired have gone a long way in helping me to achieve those goals.

So First of all I give huge props for Ali cross at alicross.blogspot.com for her amazing blog fest that I joined in at the last minute. It helped me to accomplish the last of my posting goals for the week making it three in all. Not to mention how it helped make great strides toward my goal of reaching 100 followers by the end of July. I have 18 more to go. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I reach it. Cross your fingers and send up a few prayers for me too. That might just give me a little extra help in meeting that goal.

And last the very real, very worrisome threat of singing Karaoke if I don't meet my writing goal of 15 pages a week has me moving forward with a steady clip for my story. I got in 20 pages even, and surpassed it. I think I was just making sure it was obvious I had reached my quota. And alas, I blogging, texting or face book couldn't be used toward that goal even though I still say it is writing. I tried and it was shot down in a micro second. Oh well! You can't say I didn't try!

So now I am half way there toward my goal. This week and next week to go and I will end the first of Aug, and let you know my total standing. So now I am off to be sure I meet my goals.

Once more they are : 3 postings a week, 15 pages of writing for my story and 100 followers for my blog.

What are you goals that you have set for your self and what are you doing to be sure you are achieving them? Let me know, I'd love to hear them!

Star wishing and Checking in!

I'm wishing on a star, or maybe it's really a nebula or a plant either way, I'm wishing and I hoping my dreams come true as I reach for them, one goal at a time.

So a quick little blurb to be accountable to my writing goals.

So as to writing blogging three times this week! I did it Wha hooo!! Yay for me!

As to adding more followers, I was able to add 2 more. Any one with suggestions on how to be more outgoing in the blogging world would be welcome. But hey, I am working toward my goal still! Just 30 more to go!

And then getting 15 pages of my WIP accomplished was a huge YES!! I got more than 15 even, and tightened up my plot , characters and researched my story lines and learned more about writing too!

It feels so amazing to get to say I did it! I feels wonderful to have a fourth of my goal for the month of July accomplished successfully! I am looking forward to reporting back next week on how I did for this weeks continuing goals... 15 more pages, 2 more blog postings and hopefully adding a few more followers too.

I know I can, I know I can.... to coin a phrase from The Little Engine that Could. Accomplishing those goals sure makes me feel like I can do what ever I set my mind to, it's all about making the decision to do it and then sticking to it with the following through part until it is finished. And sometimes that can be the hardest part of all!

Well off to get some writing done, and maybe surpassing my goals once more!! Keep your fingers crossed for me, since I can't do it myself. Why not you ask?? well, how can I type and let my fingers fly across the keyboard if they are crossed??? I guess I could, but it would take a whole lot longer to do it! So please, will you cross yours for me??? I really appreciate it!

blogging and writing goal

I must make a confession. One that I think was a long time in coming, and quite frankly one I need to admit to myself. My daughter Danielle has out blogged me! She has laid down the gauntlet and shown me up quite a bit!

Not only is she having the best fun of her life traveling through Europe, but she also started her blog in May and has written in it just about everyday since then all while traveling all over Europe. Sure it is an assignment while she studied abroad this summer,and ya it's required, but really that doesn't matter. She has blogged her heart out! What I have I done while she's been gone? Well, read her blog of course http://aportraitofdanielle.blogspot.com How could I not?? But certainly not blogging myself.

Dani has had some pretty great adventures and have to say she has shown me that I have been making blogging way harder than it needs to be. Maybe it's because so many of my Friends are soo good at it, that I feel like it's tough to keep up at their level, but really now I see it was just an excuse. That if my amazing daughter can show me up in a heartbeat, then maybe I need to get on the ball, and show her that I can keep up. Or at least make an attempt...an honest attempt.

I used to wonder how all my friends managed it, how they were able to blog so much, but now I think I am going to challenge myself to blog like they do! I am going to take the month of July and blog it like I've never blogged before! OK, not everyday, but I will commit to at least three times a week! I will attempt to blog everyday from here out, but since July started um 3 days ago, I sort of missed that particular boat. But blogging I will do from here on out.

I hope to gain a few more followers and I hope to learn something more about myself and what I can accomplish, because I am also going to add a writing goal for my novel here too. I will write at least 15 pages a week. No less and I will come back on Sunday to report my results of blogging and writing.

Hey I have to be accountable to myself somehow, and since I have been a pretty big bump on a log lately, not motivated to do much more than find ways to avoid everything I love to do, I am kicking my own butt. And giving all my friends to kick it along with me!! If you want to add your butt kicking motivation to the comments... please please go for it!! Heaven knows I really Really REALLY need it!

I need to get back to the land of the living instead of wallowing in the land of the forgotten and feeling lost all the time while I wander aimlessly(metaphorically speaking) all over the place getting absolutely nothing accomplished. So here I go, with the first entry! Keep your fingers crossed that I will accomplish what I am setting out to do! I think it will be really cathartic and get me back on track, and moving forward like I need to!!

So here it goes!! Let the fun begin!! The Official Goals for July : 1) blog at least 3 times a week, everyday if possible 2) Increase my followers and maybe break 100 if really lucky! 3) write 15 pages of Into The Crimson Sun every week! 4) Report progress on goals truthfully every Sunday.

Always reaching for the next level

Making goals to increase your strength and health is an important part of any exercise plan. It's always helpful to see the progress you have made and then create new levels to aim for. When you shoot for the stars, you will find that you are climbing higher and higher and eventually you will reach them.

I remember when I started exercising in earnest again after taking a long lazy hiatus. It made me cry when I realized how much I actually let myself go. I could hardly keep up in classes, a five pound weight might as well have been 100 and I was winded within the first five minutes of class starting. I struggled to keep up and I was humiliated. I had taught these classes three in a row at times , kicking every one's butt, without a problem, and now this one class showed me very how far I had fallen and kicked my butt to the curb. It was sobering. And I cried huge tears. How could I have let this happen??? Life, of course, and just not finding me important enough to take care of.

That was 2 and half years and 45 pounds ago. I decided then to face reality. I wasn't going to get any healthier doing nothing and pretending this wasn't happening. I faced the hard facts and chose a different way. I was worth it. I deserved to be healthy and strong. I was determined to get back to where I knew I once was . . . strong and conditioned and in shape.

To get there I made goals. Easy ones I could obtain so that I could see success. Yes, I even used a sticker chart with smiley faces . . . why not? It worked for my kids, why wouldn't it work for me too? I gave myself a smiley every day I worked out. It was great incentive to see what I had accomplished, especially when it took more energy than I would like to admit just to get me out the door and not turn around and give up. I would increase what I could do a little at a time until what was astronomically out of reach and harder than Hades to accomplish became a piece of cake, and then I would adjust my goals and increase what I required of myself and continue forward.

In this way, I am stronger than I've been in years. I don't let myself say . . . "I don't think I will work out today." I say instead . . . "We are going out the door and you are doing what needs to be done. Period!" And everyday I am finding I can do more than I imagined.

For instance I never imagined I could run and sustain a ten minute mile. But I can now . . . the weight I literally throw around now (really, I mean throw, if you ever saw me in the gym you'd know what I mean) is now 35 pounds and higher. And I'm not done yet. I plan to keep improving and growing and setting goals I can reach and obtain and be successful.

In the pool I am faster and stronger than ever, and I love how my body pushes itself through the water and how it works to keep in control of the water weights, to where I control them not the other way around, using muscle to keep firmly planted and not let buoyancy take over.

I tell you these things so you can make your own fitness plan and watch as you adjust it from week to week with new goals, how strong you will become. To show you that if I can do it, anyone can do it! I have seen it in a lot of people who take my classes already. They are beating me at my own game and becoming faster than me. It is great to see. Keep working hard at mastering your body and building strength. I believe in you and I know you can do it! Tell me your goals and let me hear your successes. They are inspiring!

Bill Phillips asks "Being healthy is a decision we have to renew each and every day. Today in your thoughts and actions are you choosing health?" He also said, "A person's state of health can often be predicted by which he or she takes two at at time- pills or stairs." Remember nine out of ten of the greatest accomplishments were done on a deadline. What is the deadline for your next great accomplishment?

Yes I am a Ninja!!

I am a Ninja! What does that mean? That I can do cool funky martial arts? You know it! Kick boxing and bowing to a sensai in a dojo? ABSOLUTELY! Chasing hidden warriors in the light of the moon, waiting with eyes dilated and ears open for any slight movement, relying on my inner instinct to know when I am about to be attacked. YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT! I do those things, I can take some one down in a fight if I have to, I have worked hard to teach others to kick butt and teach them to yell from their gut a resounding HIYA! Soothing, energy filled, and tension relief all in one. But that is not what I mean when I say I am a ninja.

I am a ninja in that I am now a part of Feb NiNoWriMo. I am joining in with other ninjas, writing ninjas to accomplish a goal. The goal to keep writing in my book, to get it finally finished, so I can work on edits. So the way I plan to use my mighty stealth and slay some major word counts and move steadily ever closer to finishing my manuscript, is to write everyday, to work toward a min of 1000 word a day word count. And if I am a mighty warrior with words and get more done and write 5000 words in a day, I will bow to my sensai (Ali Cross) and bow to my dojo at alicross.blogspot.com and say thank you my honorable sensai for teaching me the ways of words and writing with a warrior spirit. Now I must be off to slay the word dragons and bring honor to those who have taught me to show my fighting prowess with a determination to not fail and bow to them as I leave to honor my promise and kick some major writing butt!

Keeping Committed~No Matter What!

Nanowrino has me caught in its tight magical grip, and I hope it never releases me! New unexpected plot twists are being unveiled and it is so much fun to see what will happen next as the story I have worked on for a year, shares new secrets with me. It has captivated me and I have loved every minute of it.

With most amazing month of nanowrino half over I have had such wonderful success with holding to the goal of writing 50,000 words. So far I am already past 30,000 words heading for the home stretch. So all of my writing time is taken there.

For this reason, I wanted to publish a post I wrote a while back about making goals on writing. It is focused on committing to writing every day for an hour, but I found another way that has been hugely inspiring and that is meeting a word count goal for the day. In doing so I have written over 100 pages in my book in 17 days. I can't wait to see what I can accomplish by the end of the month.

So, for all you nanowrimo people out there! Keep the faith, you are awesome! And hold true to your word count goals, or time goals. Here is my post, I hope you enjoy it! I feel it hold so much of what I am going through with writing for nanowrimo, it really speaks of holding on and never giving in!

~*~*~*~
Last September I took a huge leap of faith, I decided that the writer inside me dying to be let out and be heard, could be. I began to write my first novel even though I was afraid of being found out and exposed by the inner workings of my mind.

Besides, who was I, a crazy busy mom of seven very active kids to think I could be a writer?

This summer alone I had to get my boys to basketball, football, lacrosse, and track practices, camps, games and meets. I was teaching 3 to 4 plus group exercise classes a week, and leading a bunch of energetic fun 12 and 13 year old girls for our church's young women's youth group. Not to mention getting my second daughter ready for college, and keeping my little children entertained too all while my husband was going to be gone most of the time.


But, I figured if I could commit myself to the incredibly difficult goal of running a full marathon with all the training it required and raise over 2200 dollars for charity (which I ended up finishing in a little over 7 hours through hail, rain, snow and winds that blew me off the road) and do another one that same year, then I could commit to being an author and this goal I set for myself.

So I took up a challenge to write every day in the month of July for an hour. I was committed, no matter what. It would be a piece of cake, right? After all it was just an hour a day.

Well, I was way wrong on this one.

It turned out to be more difficult than I could have ever imagined.

Not thinking, I chose to take on this challenge that would be in effect during a caving trip , going out of town to visit family that had plans of their own that I was expected to be a part of for 8 days, taking care of kids on my own while my husband was either traveling for work or serving the Lord at Scout Camp or cooking for over 250 people on a four day Pioneer Trek, most of the month of July. In addition, I was traveling on my own with all seven of my kids (ages 19 to 6 years) to Utah to see my mom, brother and to take my daughter to college orientation in Logan.

Not a single day of this challenge went by that I haven't started writing before 12 am. It is so hard at times. I'm sooo tempted at times to just quit and not keep at it. But I told myself that I was writing no matter what, like I promised myself. And so with bleary eyes and jumbled brain waves, I stayed committed.

I can honestly say I haven't missed a single day of writing and kept my goal alive, beyond my expectations, even when it was as late (or early) as 1:30 am when I finally hit the keys. After finishing my writing time for the day, I always feel a huge sense of accomplishment for not giving up on me.

I have made more progress this month than I ever thought possible. I know that some days my eyes are held open with extra help, when all they want to do was head off to dream land. But I am somehow able to rouse myself enough to finish what I am writing on, hit save and stumble off to bed.

So I say, if me and my crazy self can keep committed to writing everyday no matter how out of control life can get, then I believe you can do it too.

So experiment! Try it out for yourself. Make a goal, stay with it, and come tell me what it was and how it went. I'd love to hear about your writing experiences. Besides, I know one thing for sure, you definitely won't be sorry, when you look back at your accomplishments.