Achieving Goals

August 8, 2010

In May I decided I'd had enough of being out of shape, having the arteries of a 66 year old woman, and none of my clothes fitting.  I finally set my mind to do something about it and made it a priority.  I am now back in my clothes, 15 pounds lighter and much more muscular.  My cholesteral, previously 328 is now normal.  All in less than three months after whining for three years about how hard it is to write and stay fit.

My writing did suffer.  I wrote two novels in a little over a year and now my writing is much slower. But life is better.

So what now?  Setting goals seems to work for me.  I am determined to send out queries for Deceptions, keep my fitness level and maybe improve it, run a 5K in September, and start another book.

But more than that, I want to be kinder to this world.  Each week I want to do something, no matter how small, to make the world a better place.  So I'm going to focus on that for a while, until it's part of my routine.  First I'll need to be more mindful of opportunities. Routine daily actions like recycling count. But I can only count it once for the week.

I'm also ready to have more experiences.  I have so many blessings and I don't need any more material things.  I need to sell or give away some of what I have.  But as the New York Times pointed out today, happiness lie in relationships and experiences.  I can have more of both if I spend less, work less.  That's where I'm headed.