Gol! How I met my goals when I thought I hadn’t set any

This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, where are you on your reading and writing goals? I have blogged before about how I don’t like setting goals and making resolutions. They kind of stress me out and bring up all kinds of fears that I won’t be able to achieve them so why should I set them in the first place? (Imagine me saying that last part really fast and in a high voice).

Yeah, pretty negative. And what’s kind of silly about this is that I actually do make goals all the time (I never would have finished writing a single book if I hadn’t). I just don’t tend to write my goals down on a piece of paper or keep track of them in a file. I probably should. I bet I’d be far more organized and it would be clearer when I’ve met a goal.

So, let me look back and come up with my first quarter goals in a retroactive way. First, I wanted to complete the edits on my first mystery novel, Clean Burn, which is coming out in September 2013 from Exhibit A. I had to wait for my editor’s notes, but he’d assured me they would be fairly simple. After I got his notes, I was able to incorporate those changes over the course of two weekends, so I’ve kicked that imaginary soccer ball into the net and the fans are screaming, Gol!

Second, I wanted to complete by a certain date a rough draft of my current WIP, Revolution, the third and last book of the Tankborn trilogy from Tu Books. I’m being cagey about the specific date, because I like to keep that sort of thing to myself. I’m on target with that. Assuming I meet that goal as I expect to, I’ll have a few days to set the book aside, have some fun without having to think about the story, then get back to Revolution so I can get the rewrite done by the deadline. Haven’t quite reached the goal of finishing the rough draft since the date hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s within reach.

Third, I wanted to get going on my marketing and discoverability for my indie published romance novels. I’m meeting that goal with my new author “support group.” After a writer’s conference last October, a team of us had agreed in principle that we would work together to learn more about social networking. Our ultimate goal is to improve reader awareness of our books and therefore improve our sales. We had a fantabulous get-together last weekend (which I blogged about here). We’re still working out the details, of course, but there will be some exciting ventures coming out of our collaboration (new goals!).

I’ve also wanted to get my website updated, which my hubby has helped me with (okay, he does all the work, but he does ask the occasional question that I have to answer). It’s still got some work to be done (I have to set up sites devoted to my romance and mystery sides), but you can check it out here.

So I’m doing pretty well on the goal front. I have completed or am close to completing most of what I set out to do this quarter. I’ve got a bunch of new things on my list, but that means I’m moving forward and challenging myself. Isn’t that great?

So how about you? Are you meeting your goals? Are you happy with how things are turning out?