July 13, 2011

ROW 80 Check In: The Big Picture

It's Wednesday, and time to check in on my A Round of Words in 80 Days goals. Quotes often give me inspiration, so I searched for quotes about goals. One name popped up in several, Denis Waitley. According to his website, Denis is "one of America's most respected authors, keynote lecturers and productivity consultants on high performance human achievement." Not bad.

His quotes:

Don't be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal become a mini goal in itself.

Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.

 

His points are valid. I like the ideas of managing priorities instead of trying to manage time, concentrating our energies, and focusing on the here and now. When I have a day where I don't meet my goal, I can't beat myself up. The more discouraged I get, the harder it is for the words to flow.

My progress this week:

Sunday, 7/10
Results: did not work on our sequel, posted on Depression Cookies blog
Reaction: Even though my goal was to write six days a week, I hated not writing.

Monday, 7/11
Results: 547 words, posted
Reaction: Disappointed. It left me wondering if not writing the day before threw off my rhythm.

Tuesday, 7/12
Results: 966 words, posted
Reaction: Thrilled. Best daily word total yet!

I am still reading two books and hope to have at least one done and reviewed by Friday, but I'm being easier on this goal than my word counts and posts. See there, I'm learning to prioritize already. My biggest thrill this week was my word total since starting ROW80: 4,356 words so far!

Hope everyone else is feeling good about their goals. If not, take a minute to redefine and prioritize. Undue stress is never a friend to goals.

Let me know how you are doing below. I'm heading over to give some encouragment and link love soon.

7 comments:

Julie Glover said...

Great word count for ROW80! My own goals are more about editing and querying, and I'm making some progress but not as much as I hope to. I think it's good for the goal to be a little out of reach for a while to get me in gear.

Congrats on the progress. Love your blog site, by the way! Nicely done.

Cate Morgan said...

HA! You just summarized my entire ROW80 in a few sentences. (Still, at least my sponsor post involved chocolate!). I actually learned that task/priority managing works much better for me than anything else I've tried. Good luck the rest of the week! :o)

alberta ross said...

you seemed to have done a great deal - well done - thanks for dropping by my place - glad I'm not the only one who finds genre's very perculiar!

Anonymous said...

Way to go Tia. Great word count for the week. Prioritizing is a major key to goal attainment. I had to do this today in order to stay on target. Thanks for coming by my check-in and commenting. ROW ROW ROW your book....

Tia Bach said...

Julie - I should incorporate some editing goals (I'm editing a YA novel), but I knew I'd be overwhelmed. Thanks for your encouragement and the compliment on the blog!

Thanks, Cate. All good things incorporate chocolate!

Alberta, Thanks for stopping by. I really did enjoy your genre comments.

Kerry, Thanks. It's 10pm and no words yet today. Day by day!

Vicki Keire said...

Your word counts seem great to me! I really appreciate your quote, though. I'm having to break things down into smaller chunks this round, and it helps to back up and remember that they do add up to major goals! And yes, chocolate does seem to be the theme this week, doesn't it?

Tia Bach said...

Thanks, Vicki! Chocolate never hurts a thing!