2018 Goals – More Updates

Happy Monday, and welcome to October, friends! You all are overdue for a 2018 goal update (my last one was in June) and, since we have only 3 months left in the year, it seems like a good time to rev up the activity and finish the year strong.

As a quick reminder, here were my goals:

• Publish some of my writing
• Travel more
• Dabble in an art career

Here are the updates on each goal up to this point:

Goal 1: Publish some of my writing

In my last goal update post, my short-term writing goals were:

• Finish writing out supplemental/resource material for the how-to book
• Allow my friends to read a draft of my novel for feedback
• Resume work on novel # 2

I’m happy to say that the how-to book is completely finished and I did a little more work on novel # 2. I haven’t asked for feedback on my novel yet, mainly because I read through it and I think – actually, I know – it could use some more editing. Since I made progress during this last round of updates, I’ll go easy during the next 3 months. However, going “easy” doesn’t mean that I’m doing nothing. I want to take fewer but more impactful actions.

My next set of goals is as follows:

• Complete edits on my novel
• Participate in NaNoWriMo in November
• Publish my how to book

Goal 2: More travel

Ah, travel. It’s my most consistent love and one of my favorite hobbies. My goals last time were mostly about planning and paying for travel:

• Finalize details for birthday trip in August
• Finish paying off October cruise balance
• Start budgeting for international trip in December

My birthday trip happened and it was epic! I also paid off my cruise balance and I’ll be on the ocean in a few weeks. I am going to postpone my December trip because some changes in my life mean that I will need to stay closer to home this holiday season. However, I’m going to be READY for some great travel in 2019! Here are my goals for the remainder of the year:

• Plan out 2019 trips
• Film at least three travel-related videos for my YouTube channel
• Get TSA Pre-Check/Global Entry

Goal 3: Dabble in an art career

My goals for my art related career aspirations were as follows:

• Complete an art course
• Create a website for art career “secret project”
• Read “Institutional Time – A Critique of Studio Art Education” by Judy Chicago

This area was the one that I had the least progress. I started an art-related course but I didn’t finish it. I never worked on the website, nor did I read the book I intended to finish. I was a bit discouraged at how little I worked on my art-related goals, but I know that the lack of progress is a symbol of something else. In this case, I need some additional clarity over what kind of art-related career I want. There are a lot of things I could do in the art world but, without clarity, I feel very aimless. In order to make strides in this area, I have to develop my dream a bit more.

On that note, here are my goals for the remainder of the year:

• Clarify what kind of art-related career I desire
• Create a preliminary career “plan” for my target career
• Attend at least three art related events so that I can meet more likeminded people

Those are my mini-goals in a nutshell. I’ll keep working on it, and I’ll report the final outcome at the end of the year. I’m so excited: this is going to be an incredible three months!

Talk to you all tomorrow!