2017 goals???

Only two months left of 2017...how are you doing on your goals???

I wish I were doing better on mine, but I'm okay with where I am. 2017 was a rebuilding year for me, in a way. I worked on myself and worked on being the person I want to be.

Here are my goals and the progress I've made thus far:

#1: Make Simon and Schuster regret dropping me.

Well...they're a huge company with thousands of authors. They surely don't miss little ol' me. And probably never will. Dumb goal to make for myself. LOL

#2: Publish Lemonade in Hell, either traditionally or indie.

I've made some progress here...sort of. I had lot of requests for it that I'm still waiting to hear back on. I had some great critiques and was able to work on it and make it a better book. So fingers crossed. But once I hear back from the handful of agents and editors who have it, and if it doesn't go well, I plan to start the process for publishing it myself. It's scary as hell, but I can't put this book on the shelf and aways wonder, "What if?"

#3: Write book 2 in the beverage series.

I haven't started book 2 because I didn't know what was going to happen with book 1, so this goal is on the back burner...but it's gonna happen :)

#4: Reach $100,000 in Disney sales for the year.

Sadly, I will not reach this goal :( BUT I did increase sales this year by over 30%, so I'm happy with that. My business is growing and I'm starting to get more and more referrals, so I feel optimistic about reaching this goal in 2018.

#5: Blog 4 times on month on my Disney blog and 2 times a month on my author blog.

I've been really inconsistent this year with blogging and I did make attempts to be better at it. I ultimately did not post as much as I wanted. BUT I'm working on it and plan to get into a better habit these last two months of the year.

#6: Lose 20 pounds. Preferably by July.

I gave it my best effort, but due to underlying health conditions, it just was not possible for me to lose weight. But I think the underlying conditions are managed...somewhat...so going forward, I hope to be in a better place to start losing the weight.

So that's me. What goals did you make for 2017? Where are you in achieving them???

Reaching your New Year's Goals!

January is the month of setting goals. Everyone makes promises to themselves, or to others, for how they will change their lives in the new year. But so often those goals get pushed aside by the end of February. Why? It could be laziness or lack of time. Lack of motivation, support, money.... There are lots of reasons why people fail to carry out their goals.

Here are my list of Dos and Don'ts for keeping your New Year's goals!

DON'T make unrealistic goals. If you aim to get to the gym 7 days a week and lose 5 pounds a week, well, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. It's good to aim high, but in order to keep yourself from getting disappointed, start small. If you're joining a gym for the first time, aim for 3 days a week. And 1 pound a week is a healthy weight loss goal. You'll find it easier to reach goals if you start small and adjust your goals as you go along. And the small accomplishments will energize and motivate you.

DO adjust your priorities. If your goal is to write more in 2014, well, that takes time. And as everyone knows, time is precious. There's only 24 hours in a day, and that time has to be divided between jobs, kids, spouses, chores, eating, and of course, sleeping. How great would it be if we could sleep 1 hour and be completely rested?? But until science invents some kind of magic pill, we all need a good 7-8 hours a night. So the only option for eeking out more time is to give up some of the other ways we spend it. Do you really need to watch that TV show? Is it all that important to sit on Pinterest for an hour? An hour to write, or work out, or do whatever other goal you have, can be a very successful hour.

DON'T let others discourage you. It happens. People try to pull you from your goals for whatever reason. I think family is the biggest culprit for this....and the guilt we feel. The kids want to play, the spouse wants to snuggle. Stay strong! Talk with your family and make them understand your goals and how important they are to you.

DO let yourself off the hook once in a while. Life can throw all kinds of things at us. It's okay to step back and take a break, rejuvenate yourself. Pushing on when you're clearly tired, burned out, under the weather, stressed, etc... is asking for disaster. Step back, fix whatever is going on, then get back to your goals. And it's okay to play with the kids and snuggle with the spouse. Enjoy your life too. It's all about finding the right balance.

DO find a support system. Having friends to reach goals with is a great way to keep yourself on track. Not only is it good to have someone to celebrate the highs with and commiserate the lows with, having someone to keep tabs on you will help keep you motivated. It's easy to fail when there's no one to hold you accountable but yourself. But if you have to check in with a friend, you will be more motivated to do something. Find friends in real life, or friends online. Support is so so important

So there it is! Good luck in 2014! And if you want to chat about goals and making the happen, tune in tonight at 8 EST on Twitter for #ChickLitChat!

Did you join a gym as a New Year's resolution??

We joined a gym two years ago as our New Year's resolution. The main reason for joining was so hubby could lose 30 pounds. His doctor told him he had sleep apnea and he needed to lose some weight. Wanted to try that before giving him the machine. But he was also told that having sleep apnea makes it harder to lose weight. So we joined a cheapy gym...only cost us like $40 a month for both of us and the monthly fee for our son to use the kid's playroom while we were there. Even then we knew it was going to be something we did for the long haul...not just a short term thing. I joined too, but I've always been happy with my weight. I really only wanted to lose 4-5 lbs and just tone up.

Here we are two years later and I've been extremely happy with it all. We have switched gyms...same price, but a new place that offers all kinds of classes. I got my body to a place I was very happy with...though I do still need to tone some areas. I gained a lot of muscle too. Hubby is getting there. He was having a hard time getting to the gym....could only go like 2-3 times a week. Just so much going on every afternoon. He has recently switched shifts at his job and it should be much better for him.

But the thing about the gym that cracks me up is the rush of people joining in January. It is fantastic and it makes me happy to see that people are making the effort to get healthy. But from watching the crowds at the gym, once we get to the middle of February...the luster is gone. People just do not come anymore. I wonder what happened...where their steam went. And I don't know about most gyms, but ours locks you into a two-year contract. You are paying that cash no matter what.

So how are you doing on your resolutions so far???

It's that time of year again! Resolutions!!!

I do this every year. I make a list of goals and resolutions. But I am smart about it and logical. I make goals I know I have a chance at achieving. I did really well in 2011 with my professional goals...achieved them all!! My personal goals, well, not so much. I didn't eat more veggies and I didn't take my vitamins.

So here are my goals for 2012:

Personal:

* Eat more veggies!
* Take my vitamins- B12, D, and calcium
* Read 30 books, 12 of which will be chick lit for the Chick Lit Challenge
* Continue to go to the gym and tone
* More family time
* Go out to eat far less
* Update my journals more often

Professional:

* Find a home for The Detour to Happily Ever After
* Find a home for Pretty in Plastic
* Write a full length novel
* Write a novella
* More promo
* Find more time to write
* Blog more and read blogs more often

What about you?? Do you make goals/resolutions???

What do you do for exercise??

One of my 2010 New year's resolutions was to get in better shape...tone, lose a few pounds, etc.. Hubby and me joined a gym on Jan. 2nd.

I had tried in the past to exercise at home- various DVD's(pilates and Dancing with the Stars Cardio Dance) but as much as I did enjoy them, it was easy to skip it, especially when I was trying to do pilates and my son thought it a great thing...he could climb over me and under me and try to slide off of me. So yeah...it didn't work so well. Plus, the cost of joining a gym would be a huge motivator for us. If we were paying for something every month we would be far less likely to let the money go to waste. The gym we joined, Fitness 19, was extremely affordable, even with paying for childcare for our son.

So we went almost every day during the week. Hubby was on midnight shift then and we went as soon as our daughter got on the bus. After that we'd come home and he'd go to sleep. It worked real well for a while, but then hubby switched shifts-back to days- and it started to be hard for him to find time to go. I still went and was well on my way to meeting the goals I had set.

But it started to get really boring. The gym we'd joined was pretty small and offered no classes. Many of the machines I liked to use were often taken and most days I left having not done all I wanted to do.

Then a new gym opened close to us- a World Gym. Brand spanking new and HUGE!!!! We switched and got an awesome pre-sale price (how could you not join for $8.99 per person per month??? They have every machine under the sun, several variations of each machine too. And they have classes!! I am in love with Zumba!!! I was just going Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but I'm trying to go Monday and Wednesday afternoons as well!

Hubby is determined to get back on the horse for 2011 and we have made some changes to our weekly routine. He should be able to go at least 3-4 nights a week, plus his days off, which change week to week.

It's that time of year again!

New Year's Resolutions!!!!

I make resolutions every year, but only things that I know I can take seriously and actually give my all to. I never make goals I know I have no way of reaching. I take these goals seriously and it really bothers me if I can't fulfill one of them.

For 2010 I had a few resolutions, as I talked about the other day: More family time. Get in better shape. Read 30 books. I did pretty good with all of them and I am happy.

For 2011 I have decided to give another go at the 30 book challenge. I did only complete 28 books this past year, with #29 on my night stand, but I still consider it a success.

I plan on continuing my gym routine, and hopefully toning up even more, and have decided to make it a goal of mine to keep hubby motivated.

Writing goals for 2011: Edit, submit and hopefully sign a contract for Karma Kameleon. Do a major rewrite of Spellbound. Write another book. I also want to bump up my marketing and promotion.

So, what are your goals for 2011??

So close...yet so far away :(

Looks like I am not going to reach one of my new year's resolutions for 2010. :(

I'd only made a few.

The first was to spend more quality time as a family...play more games together, read more together, that kind of thing. I think we reached that one, though probably not as much as i would have liked. But one of us reads with our son every night, though we have kinda slacked with our daughter. She's seven and can read on her own, above grade level. But I would like to read with her more. She just got all five Diary of a Whimpy Kid books for Christmas.

The second was to get in better shape, lose a few pounds and tone. I am definitely on track with that goal! We joined a gym the Monday after New years this year and I lost all the pounds I wanted. But have also learned to not care about the number on the scale. It's definitely more about how I look and feel. So while I have lost the pounds, my body has changed noticeably and I know I have also gained a ton of muscle, which weighs more than fat.

Lastly was my book reading goal. I read so many bloggers who do the 100 book challenge and I knew there was no way I could possibly reach that goal. So I made a far more attainable one for me: 30 books in one year. And up `til September, I was in a great position to reach, and even surpass, it. But then life happened and there just wasn't time for reading. I got most of my reading done at night before bed...but bedtime was pushed back and I was just too tired to read. And I used to read a lot at the gym. But in September we switched gyms and I was now on a time constraint. At the old gym there was no time limit for the kid's playroom. I could get my 40 minutes of cardio in (and that's when I read) and then still be able to do another 40-45 minutes of weight training. Well, this new gym has a 70 minute limit on the kid room. So I had to cut my cardio time. Which was fine because the new gym has classes and I do Zumba 2-4 times a week, so at least I wasn't losing that. But I was losing my reading time. :(

As of right now, I am about a quarter of the way into book # 29. I am hoping to finish it this week, so at least I am only one book short of my goal.

How did everyone else do on their New Year's resolutions for 2010??? Your book goals??