Happy August, everyone! I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been AWOL for the past week or so. We had several family vacations this month, which were a ton of fun, but which also made it challenging to work on all my my super-ambitious goals (what was I thinking when I set all those goals?!).
Anyway, it’s time to face the facts: did I achieve what I set out to do this month? Let’s see!
Looking Back at July’s Goals
My writing goals for July were about transitioning from quantity to quality. I still tracked my word count for each ongoing writing project, but I was revising a lot more than drafting, so in many cases I lost words because I cut out parts I didn’t need or that voice-to-text just plain got wrong 🤦🏼♂️. I wasn’t too concerned about numbers for that reason, but I still tracked them because I’m a creature of habit.
So, here are the numbers:
As you can see, my July total (27,846 words) was less than half my May or June totals. What gives? Well, I had several days where I didn’t write at all, which obviously doesn’t help my progress. Other days, I wrote for hours but lost words because I was revising. This isn’t super-surprising, since some of my goals were about focusing more on family time, and about writing more purposefully rather than just getting words on a page.
So let’s see how the data lines up with my July Writing Goals:
- Revise Unburnt – Check! ✅ Thanks to plenty of revising, I now have 20 chapters of Unburnt polished up and published on Kindle Vella. Check ’em out!
- Advertise my Virtual Realms Trilogy – Fail. 👎🏼I didn’t even try to do this. I thought about it a few times, but I didn’t make any effort to do so.
- Finish my audiobook for Locked In – Also fail. 👎🏼 Again, I didn’t even try. I pretty much forgot about it five minutes after I wrote it. (This is why you need to check your goals every once in a while, kids…sometimes you lose track of them!)
Ouch…off to a weak start. Did I hit any of my data-driven goals?
4. Post on this blog 15+ times in July — Um…not quite. 😟 I only posted 6 times last month. I have drafts for another 3 posts, but they don’t count until they’re live!
5. Publish the first 20+ chapters of Unburnt on Kindle Vella – ✅ Wait, what’s this? I reached another goal? Hallelujah! (Yeah, I know goal #1 and goal #5 overlap, but I’ll take a win wherever I can get it right now!)
6. Publish the first 10+ chapters of The Borrowed Daughter on Kindle Vella – I’m gonna give myself a check minus on this one ✅➖. I posted 7 chapters (“episodes”) of The Borrowed Daughter, then ran into vacation time. I have the whole story drafted, it’s just a lot of revising now to get each chapter into publishable shape. Give me some feedback on what I have so I know if you like where it’s going! 👍🏼👍🏼
BONUS GOALS!
(Wait, I made more goals? I knew I had a bunch of vacation time coming up, plus all these other things I was trying to accomp– ya know what, forget it, let’s see what else I set myself up for…)
- Enjoy family time! — Heeeey, now we’re talking! ✅✅✅ I had a great time with the fam in North Carolina and at Bethany Beach. There were some rough patches (🤒🤧) but we made plenty of happy memories 🌞
- Log my writing every day — Uh, I mean… technically yeah ✅, but logging ZERO some days was demoralizing.
- “Pay myself” for each word I write — 👎🏼 I actually stopped doing this… it was fun at first, but the truth is it started making it clearer and clearer to me that I need to either make money for real or stop wasting my time.
- Exercise every day (even while on vacation 🌴) — A great big ✅!!! One routine I stuck with no matter what was doing some form of a workout every day. (My eating habits on the other hand…😶)
I ALSO said I would start to…
- Set smaller, daily goals — ✅ Most (non-vacation) days I made a five-bullet list and checked things off when/if I did them. It gave me a little more focus and helped me keep better track of the little things that sometimes get overlooked.
- Eat completely vegan for 10+ days — ✅ I’m very proud of hitting this goal. I actually had 13 fully vegan days, plus 4 more days where I was vegetarian. Some days were frustrating because I would start off eating well, and then one thing would wreck my streak (e.g. I didn’t read a label carefully, or someone didn’t eat their meal and I couldn’t tolerate letting it go to waste). I will say, though, that during our week at the beach, it was nice to just let go and order whatever I wanted at restaurants some nights! 😋. I truly enjoy eating healthily, and I feel like I have a lot of good habits in place, so I’m glad to know I can do it and enjoy it as well.
- Discover new ways to make money from writing — 👎🏼 I certainly tried. I was (and to some extent still am) excited about Vella, but I haven’t made a cent from it yet 😐. As you saw above, I had some goals that could have helped me with this, but I simply didn’t go after them. I’m not really upset about it — I chose to focus on family more than writing this month, and I’ll make that choice the same way every time.
So, how did I do overall with my goals? To quote me-from-a-month-ago, “I’ll be happy if I achieve 2/3 of them (4 or more). For the ‘BONUS GOALS,’ I plan to stick to 100% of them.”
I only reached 2.5 of my writing goals, and 5 out of 7 “BONUS GOALS”. So, yes, I fell short of my goal-reaching goal (is that a thing?).
But on the other hand, I achieved 7.5 goals! On top of that, my failures were not totally pointless; I learned valuable lessons from them.
What Failure Taught Me This Month
Focus – Of course it’s impressive to complete a bunch of stuff, but it’s not so impressive to do a bunch of things only partially. I (re)learned this month that I need to direct my energies toward a specific target rather than trying to hit multiple ones.
Passion – I only really stick with things I want to do. When I give myself goals that feel like chores, I don’t usually follow through. A lot of ideas excite me, but I need to be more mindful of what I’ll really put the effort into when I have to choose.
Time – I believe time is the most valuable asset any of us has. I don’t like to waste a moment of my time, or anyone else’s. This often leads me to overbook my schedule, trying to wring the most productivity out of every day. The irony, of course, is that I end up spending a lot of time on things that don’t need to be done just then, and I don’t always appreciate the moment I’m in because I’m looking ahead to the next thing coming down the assembly line.
So now I’m a little older, wiser, and more thoughtful about my goal-setting. Which means it’s time for me to unveil my…
August Goals!
For August, I’m just setting one goal for each domain of my life (family, writing, teaching, health). Here they are in no particular order:
Writing Goal: Work primarily on ONE writing project until I make money from it — I am very excited about this prospect. I’ve tried enough things to have a good idea what direction to go next with my writing, where I am both passionate about the project and confident in the market for it. Stay tuned! 📑❓
Teaching Goal: Be ready for school by August 30th — I love my summers, but I do get excited for school to start back up once August rolls around. I’ve had my mind far from the classroom these last six weeks, so I need to be mentally ready as well as physically ready for my students when that first day rolls around. I truly feel like this year will be my best year yet! 🥇🏆🙌🏼
Family Goal: Make the most of these last few weeks together — we have several activities we want to do before summer vacation comes to a close, so I just want to be present and all-in when we have those family experiences. And I don’t want to overlook the little moments at home, or while driving, or just walking around the neighborhood… all this time is precious, and I want to savor it. 🥰
Health Goal: Continue working out, eating right, and maintaining a positive attitude — I love my exercise routines, and y’all know I love food, so those two pieces of the puzzle will be easy to stick with. I definitely need to take time to frame things in a positive light throughout the day: I’m generally cheerful and patient, but one ugly thought can snag my brain and then I start assuming bad intentions or negative outcomes. I need to work on just being aware of when I’m getting irritable or defensive and stop myself before I react.
Pause.
Think.
Choose.
On that note, I wish you a wonderful August, and best of luck with all your goals.
M. J. Lau 