New Year

Here we are in 2014. Can you believe another year has passed by? 2013 sped by like a high-speed rail train.

Days flying by in a blur. Projects piling up no matter how fast we moved. Ideas for stories and books constantly dancing in our heads.

Where did it all go? Do we really have to have an answer?

After all, we’re here now — in 2014.

A clean slate. Ready to begin anew.

New Look

In this new year, I decided to tackle my 2014 goals right out of the box.

• Among my goals is the completion of my memoir manuscript. And if that happens (and why wouldn’t it?), I need to be thinking about personal branding and author platform. Two fairly heady subjects. I decided to choose one of them to work on first.
• Branding won out! When I began blogging, I didn’t know the first thing about branding. However, along the way I have read a number of posts and articles on the subject and with working toward the finish line with my book, I decided it was something that needed serious attention.
• Note the new name, Sherrey Meyer, Writer. The tagline, however, remains tied to the central theme of my book and my goal here, “Healing life’s hurts through writing.” I chose to use my name and my calling to enjoy the freedom of being who I am almost every hour of every day of the week:
  • She who writes
  • She who loves words
  • She who hopes to help others write their stories
  • And with the new name, it was time to also adopt a more professional look, something crisp and clean with an underlying hint of purpose and mission. Look around and explore. A few things are different. Most things are nearly the same. I want you to be comfortable here — this is where we meet.

New Goals

In my last post, I talked about my goals for 2014. To date, I’m keeping pace. I want to mention something I came across after that post which is helping a lot with my daily writing goal.

Catching up on a little reading the other day, I came across a post by Jeff Goins of Goins, Writer. In it, Jeff talked about establishing a regular writing habit, writing every day. The challenge is a simple one: write 500 words every day for 31 days, starting January 1st, or when you came across the post. Then you post how many words you’ve written on any given day on Twitter, Facebook, in the Facebook Group Jeff has set up.

I decided nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? So, it was January 4th when I sat down to tackle my first 500 words. That day I wrote 1200 on my memoir, and my daily goal I had set here was to write 1500-2000 each day. Call me elated — I was close! And each day I’ve averaged about the same.

Maybe my first goal was a bit lofty or maybe I’ve just got to get past that 1200 mark.

Further, Jeff’s challenge has provided entrée for me into an online accountability group, and I’m meeting some greater writers.

The takeaway on New Goals is that although we set up goals, we need to be flexible to allow ourselves the opportunity to take advantage of something we weren’t expecting which aids in achieving that goal!

What about you? If you set goals for 2014, are you well underway? Have you had to make changes and be flexible? Let’s discuss in the comments below.