If you read my last post on January 1, you know what happened to my 2014 goals. When I sat down to set out my goals for 2015, I kept in mind what last year did to my plans. I kept focused on what I committed to in that same post on January 1. My goals for 2015 are simpler and shorter than last year’s, beginning with a focus on the mandate I set for myself of facing frustrations and interruptions with flexibility.

While I will never meet the physical flexibility seen here, I realize I need more attention to flexibility during my daily scheduling.
Goals for 2015 include:
Goal #1:
As mentioned above, more flexibility in dealing with daily demands and schedules. I have more than writing to attend to each day: family relationships, preparing meals, household chores, laundry, errands, exercise, and professional reading.
In order to get these all done, I need to realize I cannot commit every day 100% to writing. In 2015, I intend to select one day from Monday through Friday and devote it to my book. The schedule will be kept free of distractions.
Goal #2: Thanks to the artists and writers cooperative where I had registered for a writing class held September-November, I will be able to restart that class in April. Surgery and recovery interrupted my attendance, and the group was fair in extending a large part of my registration fees to join back up in January or April. I chose April to ensure I was fully healed. Returning and finishing this class is important to me.
Goal #3: Work diligently at building platform as I anticipate completing, publishing and marketing my memoir. My newsletter has gained some momentum but not what I’d like to have seen so I need to educate myself on how to increase readership. I’m also leaning more toward using Twitter as my primary social media outlet, and I’ll need to come up to speed there. Sitting on a shelf nearby is the idea for another eBook for my newsletter subscribers, but that is not a definite goal for 2015.
Goal #4: With completion of the class addressed above, I hope to have finished the second draft of my memoir. It is my further hope that I will be able to work with my class instructor in finalizing that draft and readying it for editing and later publication. However, this is not a deadline item and will never be as there are too many changes that can occur in the editorial and marketing process.
Goal #5: In 2015, I want to increase my participation in this writing community I so thoroughly enjoy. My ability to get around and read every blog post has fallen by the wayside, and I’m looking to find a better method for reading and commenting on others’ work. I also want to continue my efforts in supporting other writers by reviewing their memoirs here and other genre on Goodreads and Amazon.
These are all the 2015 goals I intend to set out in black and white. As I said in my last post, there is only one me in each day I’m given and only so much time in that one day to work at the things calling my name. To attempt more would be the closest thing to implosion of a human I can think of at the moment.
I leave you with a quote from William Edgar Stafford, Poet Laureate of Oregon from 1975-1990:
I embrace emerging experience. I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly.
Stafford’s words speak to the way I want to live 2015: emerging, discovering, experiencing.
How will 2015 play out for you? Have you set goals, made resolutions, or cast a list of to do’s in stone yet? Share how you’re forecasting your new year.
Sherrey this post inspires me as I set my own goals. I had to be flexible today. Instead of writing my blog post about planning this morning, I ended us at the local Honda dealer taking our car in for servicing.
Ah, yes, Shirley! You get it…interruptions, necessities, life all call at the most inopportune times.
Any you made it into the post I eventually wrote. 🙂
I love the goal of flexibility because that’s something I need too. It actually fits in very well with my One Word choice of “now.” Living in the now usually means being flexible.
Love this quote from Stafford, especially this: “I am a butterfly.
I am not a butterfly collector.” Thanks for sharing, Sherrey! Praying you meet your goals in 2015.
Lisa, I enjoyed your post today so much. The word “now” is so active and aware. And yes, living in the now requires a good deal of flexibility. Glad you enjoyed Stafford’s butterfly quote, a favorite of mine. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the prayers. I’m praying for you as we move forward in 2015.
Love the Stafford quote, Sherrey. I think you’ve got a good plan carved out. Seems like writing is one of those things that always takes longer then expected. Maybe it’s like a good wine, or maybe we’ve been given these extremely challenging projects for reasons we’ll never know. But somehow one page leads to the next, keep the faith!
Daisy, thanks for your gracious comment on the Stafford quote. I’m fortunate to be attending a celebration of his 100th birthday on Saturday. His son, Kim, who has written about his father, is often featured on our public TV station reading from his own writings and those of his father. There is something companionable about the elder Stafford’s poetry.
Enjoyed the analogy of writing and good wine! Perhaps a glass of wine while writing would help.
Sherrey, I’m pondering just what flexibility means — at all, and to me. The best concept I come up with is the ability to nimbly hop from one rock to the next as I cross a river in constantly changing conditions. Aside from outside situations beyond my control, I personally vacillate between obsessive focus and ADD behavior, hopping from one thing to the next, usually in the middle of all of them. Flexibility. Yeah. BIG word.
When you find a better way to keep up with blog posts, please let the world know. Obviously some people still read — far more than comment. I generally ignore my blog stats, but yesterday I checked and was blown away. By posting way less often, each post is getting more than twice the hits I was getting a year ago. Who knows? Less is more? I can be flexible that way.
Here’s to a great 2015!
Hello Sharon, as I mentioned to Joan Hall above, I have two or three ideas on the keeping up with blog posts issue. Perhaps sharing them in a blog post will be helpful when I’ve tested them out. Interesting find on your blog stats. I also pay very little attention to those stats. Wishing you a great 2015 as well!
Oh to be more flexible, Sherrey. What you have written here is so familiar. Thanks for keeping me company as the time just flies away without my getting much done!
Hi Joan! I embrace your words “[w]hat you have written here is so familiar” and find comfort in knowing others experience the same. I enjoy your company in whatever way we can get together.
Sherrey, I struggle with finding time to read other blogs. And I really enjoy interaction with the blogging community and other writers. I think, as you’ve pointed out, we just have to be flexible and realize that sometimes the best laid plans go awry.
Joan, I think most in the writing community to share the struggle of reading others’ blogs. I have two or three schemes in mind to try to get my social media interaction and blog reading balanced and active. Perhaps a blog post will share them and which one I decide on.
0 Pingbacks
Comments are closed.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Categories
Tags
Looking for Something?
Previous Posts
Top Posts & Pages
Copyrighted 2006-2023 by Sherrey Meyer
Published Works
Writing Resources
Site Policies