How Are Those Resolutions Working For You?

By Patricia Bradley

It’s January 16^th, one day past the halfway mark in January. So, how are those resolutions you made at the beginning of the month working for you? Or have you already cast them aside, broken and mangled? Raise your hand if that’s you.

That’s me waving my hand. Oh, I’ve not broken them all. I’m still doing the 100 crunches a day for the month of January. Did you know that will be 3000 crunches? And I’m still keeping a food diary. And I’m still writing every day, but that’s only because I have a deadline.

Some of the other resolutions, like budgeting (the January sales busted that one) and making better use of my time have fallen by the wayside. So, I think it’s time to set aside resolutions and go for goals. SMART goals. You’ve heard of the acronym. Goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely

Sounds simple. Not. A couple of factors have been left out, namely: Discipline and Desire. You can make all the SMART goals you want, but if you don’t have a HUGE desire to reach your goals and exercise the discipline needed to persevere, the goals will be like some of my New Year’s resolutions. Gone by the wayside.

So have your SMART goals, but make sure those goals are something you really desire, whether it’s a change in eating habits, writing, or anything else. You have to want to reach those goals more than you want that extra cookie or one more episode of Blue Bloods or whatever is your favorite TV program.

If you’ve committed to finishing your novel, you have to be willing to exercise the discipline of putting your seat in the chair, fingers poised over the keyboard. But maybe you are waiting for inspiration to strike before you write? Get over it. Writing is hard work—meaning inspiration is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

So I leave you with this: If you write five hundred words every day, in six months you will have a 91,500 word first draft. And then the real work begins.

Patricia Bradley is the winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense and a 2018 Carol finalist. Her romantic suspense books include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels and she is currently working on her next series set in Natchez, MS.