At the beginning of the year I set some goals for the first quarter of the year. This is an update on my success and what I learned.

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. – Douglas Adams.

Between January 1st and March 31st I set out to complete the following goals”

GOAL: I will have finished a second draft of my comedy mystery novella. It will be at least 20,000 words long.

STATUS: Completed

THOUGHTS: This ballooned into a 41,000 word manuscript. It was a bit messy so I did a third draft before sending it to beta readers.

GOAL:  I will have sent the 2nd draft to 3 beta readers for notes.

STATUS: Completed

THOUGHTS: I picked five people to read and all accepted.

GOAL: I will have finished a first draft of the sequel novella. It will also be at least 20,000 words long.

STATUS: Incomplete, currently 10,000 words and headed towards 40,000.

THOUGHTS: Since the first novel/la is 40,000 the sequel needs to be 40,000 as well. I’m fine with not completing this goal. I have written 51,000 words total this quarter and that is still an achievement I am proud of.

GOAL:  I will post 7 blog of at least 50 words each (after this one). Ideally one a week.

STATUS: Complete.

THOUGHTS: I wanted to post an average of one a week. I’d already posted 5 posts in 2014 at this time and I just needed 7 more. If I didn’t proclaim this as a goal I probably would not have developed this habit.

GOAL: I will be able to touch my toes with my hands without bending my knees.

STATUS: Complete

THOUGHTS: This is a fun goal, I’ve never been good at stretching and didn’t remember being able to touch my toes, even in childhood.

LESSON LEARNED

1) The main lesson I learned is that to achieve my goals I need good daily habits. Most goals that are worth completing aren’t completed over night; to do something properly it needs to be broken up into smaller steps. With toe stretching I can’t cram all my stretching in the night before the deadline and expect to gain that extra few inches of flexibility. It’s impossible.

This is the video that inspired me to touch my toes:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEKhVgwqiOc&w=560&h=315]

As you can see it’s a gradual process. So were the other goals. I could have written thousands of words in the last night to meet by goal but they wouldn’t have been quality words. Creating a good steady habit makes the task feels effortless.

2) I also realised other important things will come up. One of the reasons I did not complete the second novel/la is because I had another good writing opportunity come up.

3) When it comes to quarterly goals I need to reach for the toes, not the stars. Sure I have big aspirations, but breaking them down to smaller chunks, making them achievable in a small time frame, made me feel that hunger and drive. It was something just out of reach and I could see myself get closer and closer. That goes for word counts, blog posts and toe touching.

One of my goals for the year is to publish three novels on Kindle. It’s a big goal, daunting really, but by concentrating on whats just a little out of my reach I see myself getting closer. I get the win and realise: I did this one, I can do this again.

Bring on the second quarter of goals.