It’s almost over! January, that is. Reaching for your goals never ends.   

I hope you all got a good start on your resolutions this month. I know I did. And I’m going to continue working on them in February. In fact, I think I’ll institute a month-end check-in each month on this blog. If you want to join me, please feel free.

The last day of each month I’ll post a little update on what I’m doing, what’s coming up and what’s happening with my resolutions. It would be cool if some of you dropped in and let me know what you’re up to as well.

Thanks for participating in the challenge and special thanks to all the great guest bloggers who helped me keep the blog hoppin’ this month. I love you all! Good wishes as we all continue to reach for our goals!

And now, what you’ve been waiting for – the winner of the $10 Barnes & Noble Gift Card is:

Loretta W.

Congratulations!

Be sure to email me at biancadarc at live.com within 30 days to claim your prize.

Come back tomorrow to learn how you could win free ebooks every week in February!

I met the minimum goals I set, though I didn’t for the first two weeks of this month. I’m glad I finally got on track for the latter half of the month and will continue the trend into February. Now, how did you do?

(* We’ll meet back here on the 31st for an assessment of the whole month. If you comment on the 31st, your name will go into a drawing, so be sure to check back!)

One more item of note – I’ll be doing a giveaway each week in the month of February here on the blog, so be sure to check back for details!

I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear/see that word I get a feeling of “ugh” deep in my chest. I wonder, “great, what am I gonna fail this time?” How else can I depress myself, thank you very much?

It sounds like I never meet my goals , doesn’t it?. But to be honest, I do meet them most of the time. At least my realistic ones. And I think that is part of the issue, setting realistic goals.

How many of us have already failed in our New Year’s Resolutions? How many of us failed in the first week? Is it because we are “failures” or maybe because we set unrealistic goals, or goals were weren’t committed to for one reason or another.

It’s been just about a month, and I bet we are probably 50/50 with our goals. I have met some of mine, and failed at some of mine. Some I flew by with flying colors, some not. But I can tell you based on my personal history, the goals I set that I didn’t care about, or didn’t really want were the ones that I failed at. Those were the ones that I wasn’t driven to work on. The ones that whether it be consciously or subconsciously, I either was willing to or knew I would fail.

Think about that. Ones I was willing to fail. Ones I knew I would fail. Talk about a self-defeating prophecy. Setting goals you don’t want to succeed does no one any good. You fail, and you feel bad, when you didn’t want to do it to begin with.

So, if you are the kind of person that gets depressed when you fail those goals, stop setting them. Look at what you did, decide what you can do, and then set those goals. Each week/month/year reassess where you are and what you are doing. Recommit yourself to the same/a higher/a lower level. Decide what you can do, what you want to do, and then go for it.

Max and Leo want Adele, and if they have to do a bit of redesigning to get her, so be it.

Talya may be new to publishing, but she has many more stories in her head and on paper with which she hopes to entertain and amuse you all. She loves to read, write and hear from fans.

Okay, maybe beat is a little harsh. Unless your muse has gone off on a hiatus lasting six months. Then perhaps the little twit has it coming.

There are so many things that an author can do to set the mood to make the creative juices flow. Some of my favorites are:

• Burning scented candles. That tells me it is time to release my creative side.
• Putting fresh flowers in a decorative vase on my desk. A little pampering goes a long way.
• Turning on a playlist I’ve devised for the story I’m working on. (Each story gets it’s own unique playlist.) This puts me in mind for a certain story or scene
• Reading a short, hot story to get me in the mindset to write.
• Reading a terribly written story to remind me that I could do better if I just WROTE.
• Washing dishes or folding laundry. Both are tasks that require little to no concentration (unless you are washing glass). I let my mind wander while I have the soothing sound of water or the washer in the background.

I could go on, but I won’t. What works for me may not work for you, but I hope you find something in there to try.

Happy Writing!

Michelle

To learn more about Michelle, visit her website at: www.michellehasker.com

Ever since the spell blew up in her face, Camryn’s world has fallen apart while her fellow witches have prospered. Maybe being good isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. She’s lost her job, her apartment and her boyfriend. Her health is suffering and she looks like death warmed over. What good is being ethical if you have to pay for it with everything you have?

As some of you may recall, I got off to a rocky start, but I’m proud to say things have taken a turn for the better. I did a LOT better this week! I’ve improved a little each week since we started this, but the most important thing is – I started. I hope you did too.

The initial week was a disaster. Then things got busy and the second week was a trial, but I did manage to start working on my writing goal in earnest. This third week, I added in the exercise goal I’d been trying for, in addtion to the writing.

I’m happy to report the writing went even better this week. I got the galley proof of Jaci’s Experiment off my desk, turned in 2nd round edits on Phantom Desires, finished Dante’s story, which I’ll be submitting soon, and managed to write new material 5 out of 7 days. I also reached my goal of 2,000 words/day on those days, so mission accomplished on that! Yay!

My fitness goal was small, but since I’ve not been exercising at all for the past few months, I wanted to start slowly. My goal was to work out twice each week. This week, I managed to do it for the first time! Double Yay!

I want to build on this small success. I want to continue to aim for twice a week for the next few weeks and if/when that becomes relatively easy, I want to add on a third day. Then I want to extend the length of the workouts and make them more challenging. But that’s a goal for down the road. Right now, I’m just thrilled to have done ANYTHING on my fitness goal. Yay cubed!

So how did you all do?