*Holiday Giveaway Winners
*Call for Review Submissions
Setting Goals
Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
The above quote is one of my favorite sayings. It understands me. It helps me keep moving forward. It reminds me it's okay to fail.
I'm not big on the New Year's resolution thing, but I believe in goals. From a very young age, I was taught to set goals for the things I wanted to accomplish and to set mini-goals to help me reach the top. Somewhat like a bucket list, I think everyone should have a list of life long goals. These hopes and dreams may be broken up into yearly goals. The yearly goals can be whittled down to monthly goals, and so on.
Am I perfect? No way. Of course, I have regrets, but I believe that being a goal setter has helped me achieve some of the things in life that I never thought possible. Goals help me feel good about myself, and when I fall short, I learn about tolerance and self-forgiveness. I try again. And if I fail over and over, I learn to let go and let God. I don't have to make the New York best sellers list to get into Heaven. I may never get to Australia and see the Great White shark. But I do have to learn self-control and how to forgive. Meanwhile, it's good to make plans and have fun.
Something we do in our family every year is write down a list of reasonable goals and seal them up in an envelope. They can be physical, educational or even spiritual. Every New Year's Eve, we open up last year's plans and talk about how we did. I remind my kids that if they didn't meet any of their goals, they still made progress and that just setting goals is a good starter habit for life.
I won't ramble on about everything I shot for last year, but I did accomplish one goal, and that was to run one mile. If it sounds easy, you must understand that I probably never actually ran a mile in my life. I hate running. I can't do it. Or I couldn't... This past year I ran one mile, then two, then three, and slowly on up to five miles. While some of my friends are running half-marathons and even winning them, I'm proud of myself for my year long endeavor to learn to run. I still hate it. I only run a mile or two a week now. But this 43-year-old couch potato did it. And my knees survived.
Best wishes for your new year. Now get out there and set some goals!
~Danielle Thorne
Holiday Giveaway Winners
Thank you to all who commented to win on both of our holiday giveaways this past month. A big "thank you" again to Random.org for running the numbers for a fair drawing. Winners are listed below, and I will be in touch ASAP.
Congratulations to #Brenda Hyde Jean! You are the winner of the $25 gift card giveaway!
What's next? Join me at the end of January for a free for all giveaway of my environmental romance, Turtle Soup!
Call for Review Submissions
We're full. Thank you for your submissions!
It's on! I'm looking for some sweet to warm romances to review for the first quarter of 2013. I prefer e-books, but print copies are acceptable. No erotica. None. Nope.
If you would like a review or a free ad space as the Recommended Read at The Balanced Writer, you may contact me through my personal website here. I am only taking three books at this time, so don't be late!
2 comments:
Thank you SO much:)I truly enjoy your blog and it keeps me hopeful as far as publishing my fiction. I write nonfiction for a living, and have had to focus on that lately to pay the bills:)
I had to go back to freelancing myself this year, too. It'd be great if we could actually making a living writing fiction, huh!?
Thanks for following the blog. Congrats on the win! And check your email!
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