Goal-Setting – Page 9

A Disciplined December, Week 2 Check-In

December 19, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

It’s been a bit of an upside-down week, but in spite of that, I made some progress on my goals, and even accomplished some things, like baking, that hadn’t even made it onto my list of goals. My book launch has been going well, and homeschool has been plugging along, despite interruptions on all sides!

Get into a better personal routine. I’ve been waking up early almost every day this week. Still haven’t gotten down to exercising, but feeling much more motivated about that as my shoulder continues to heal, and plan to get into the routine this week.
Regroup in the homeschool department. I waver here between trying to cram in as much as we can before we leave so that we have fewer books to carry back, and paring down to a skeleton schedule so I don’t stress myself out. Anyone want to weigh in?
Launch my book. I have some further dates scheduled this week for the Virtual Book Tour, I’m quite happy with the results from last week, and I’m scheduling blog tour, part two for the new year, since who knows what will happen over the holidays! (But I have an excellent suggestion for a Christmas gift. Did you know you can gift a Kindle book? Look for the “Give as a Gift” button in the sidebar to the right.)

How are your goals going? Christmas shopping done yet?

Disciplined December: Week 1 Check-in

December 12, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

I’m not feeling so great about my goals this week. I tend to think I can do everything, and the simple truth is I just can’t. I stayed up late and woke up early, and homeschool was anything but structured, all as a result of the work for my novel launch. Granted, this is not something that happens every day around here, and something to get excited about–if I could find a minute to do that in!

All of that is to say that I didn’t hit the target on all of my goals this week, but I did make some progress.

Here are the goals I’m working on:

I was up twice this week at 6:00 and had my morning routine underway. I did not exercise. Something I have yet to mention here is I injured my shoulder during our vacation. (Seeing the chiropractor and then the doctor and then having an ultrasound were some of the events that turned the previous week upside down). The diagnosis was as good as it could be. It was not any of the things that anyone suspected it might be (a break, a dislocation, a sprain, a strain or a tear). It is simply bruised and inflamed and needs rest. That’s okay, I didn’t need my right arm anyway! Seriously, though, I’m very grateful it was nothing worse. My range of motion is returning and my sleep is less disrupted by pain than it was. Even though we’re traveling this week, things can only be calmer than they were last week, and I should be able to have some kind of a normal schedule. Now that my shoulder’s feeling better, I’ll add some exercise.
I’m going to make a determined effort to go to bed on time for a change because for me that’s key to starting the day right.
Regroup in the homeschooling department and come up with a plan for what we’ll study until we leave Canada. I honestly haven’t done much about this except think about it, and fret a little. Ultimately, I realize that if my kids focused on the old-fashioned three R’s for the entire school year, they’d still be fine at the end of the year. I just feel like what we’ll lose out on is all the things we love the most (history, science, read-alouds). I know we’ll figure it out, and I keep telling myself it’s just a season.
I still have some work to do to schedule more dates for my virtual book tour, but it’s coming along. Click on the link to the right to join in! More than one of the reviewers is hosting a giveaway. You could be the lucky winner!

How about you? Are you on track?

A Disciplined December

December 5, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Can you believe it’s December? Well, if you’ve been to the mall, I guess you’ve been confronted with the reality, but still. Really?

Recent goal-setting failures aside, and the desire to eat turkey, light candles and do nothing barking at the door, I’m determined to have a productive December, and bring some much-needed discipline back to my routine. Here are my goals:

Structure my personal schedule in order to make time for morning routines. My hope is that this will help me eliminate backlog and find time for things like writing (because I’m very excited about the new novel idea that’s been brewing in me), and internet use (because marketing for After the Snow Falls has taken on something of a life of its own).
Regroup in the homeschooling department and come up with a strategy for what we’ll do until we leave Canada. We just came back from a vacation, so we’re in get-back-in-the-groove mode, but we’ll have to stop really soon for Christmas. And then there’ll be moving frenzy. (Trust me, I know this well.) So I need to rethink schedule, prioritize and make it happen.
Successfully launch After the Snow Falls. It will be released on December 15, and I’m lining up a blog tour now.

Wow! They’re big goals, and maybe I’m being overly optimistic with all the good Christmas-y feeling in the air, but I think I can do it.

And believe it or not, I haven’t forgotten Advent. I sincerely believe that if I’m able to structure my days better–maybe more realistically–I’ll be able to do the slowing down necessary to prepare my heart for this season.

What are your goals this month?

November Review and Reflection

November 28, 2011 by Carey Jane Clark

Ever have the urge to add something to your goals list, just so you can cross it off? I have that urge this month, because I actually accomplished quite a lot–just few of the things I set out to accomplish.

This month was more hectic than I anticipated. It seems I say this often. I’m not sure if I met my 3 in 30 goals, and I missed updating them twice, but something else happened: my novel is being published. And that was completely unexpected–at least so soon after I finished the last word.

And we found out we’re heading back to China. We now have an unofficial date (unofficial because flights aren’t booked quite yet) of February 7-ish.

I opened up two new blogs. I will continue to blog about homeschool here, but I’ll blog about our China adventures and begin our Mandarin lessons for children at www.holdthemsg.com and I made a website for After the Snow Falls as well as a Facebook page.

So it’s not like I haven’t been productive, I just didn’t quite achieve November’s goals. I’m definitely going to be moving one of those goals into December: work on my personal schedule. My days haven’t exactly been ordered this month. I want to work on getting up earlier, having my devotional time first and exercising.

Here were my goals:

Work on my personal schedule: I did fine on this goal for the first week, although I must confess I didn’t actually make it to the exercise portion. I’m trying to console myself in the fact that the Gluten-Free diet is making it easier to stay on top of my weight goals regardless of the lack of exercise.
Begin moving preparations: I didn’t do a lot on this, I must confess. Part of the slow-down was that we recognized we wouldn’t be able to leave in January because of the Chinese New Year. Since we’ve moved the move into February, there’s perhaps not as big of a rush as I’d originally thought. I did, however, make a lot of lists and start to buy the spices I’ll need. I also did a lot of weeding through homeschool books to start deciding what goes, what gets given away or sold and what gets packed away for the future.
Pull off a successful birthday celebration for Sweetpea and have a blast on our trip. Mission definitely accomplished! We have had a wonderful time. We head home tomorrow.

How was your November?

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