**This should have been 4 on the 4th, but with my mind locked in another realm the internet was foreign to me at the time. Sorry, better late than never I guess…
As usual, a review of last month’s goals are shown in italic, while my comments on their success are shown below each in bold.
1. Write – This is always goal #1. I am so incredibly eager to finish my book (for the second time) and get it in motion. So I’m pushing hard on this one. This month my word count goal is 20,000. If I was able to do all that I did this month in basically a week there should be no reason why I can’t do it in a month. And I’m really hoping I will double the goal again next month. That would really put me ahead of the game.
FAIL – I came close, but I only finished the month with 19,200 words (not all of which I even kept). It could have been so easy to get to 20,000 but Sherrilyn wouldn’t let me. Yeah, I’ll blame her. (J/K)
2. Read – Read at least 3 books again this month. This number doesn’t intimidate me and so I will stick to it. Plus of the writing I’ve done this month and shared with my mother she is just blown away by the improvement in ability in just the last year and the fact that I’ve learned it all just from reading. So obviously it’s not something I should cut back on, it’s important. Like free schooling since I’ve never been officially trained. As far as buying books goes. Well I still have 2 books from last months purchases to finish before I should let myself buy more so I will try and uphold myself to that, but my dad is in the process of building me a bookcase and something tells me the second I have it I will be even more tempted to buy what’s waiting for me in my Amazon shopping cart. Those books are: “Captivate” by Carrie Jones, “The Iron King” by Julie Kagawa, and “Fantasy Lover” (Dark-Hunter Book 1) by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
SUCCESS/FAIL – I’m going to have to start separating these two goals into reading and purchasing because as far as reading is concerned, I read more books this month than I’ve ever read in a month. Finishing six books total, one of which I read twice. As far as purchasing is concerned however, I failed miserably, buying over fifteen books this month.
3. Weight – At least 5 more lbs. I really need to take this weight loss thing more seriously for more than one reason. The most important is my health though. I am wearing 60 more lbs than I should be for my height and age and with those high cholesterol levels the combination is not good. Now the hypothyroidism could be playing a part in this inability to lose weight lately, but hopefully I can get that under control too in the next couple of months. But I’ve also got a little over a year to be ready to stand in my sisters wedding and I don’t want her looking bad with me as “the Blob” in her wedding party.
FAIL – I gained 5lbs. That’s all I have to say about that. Pitiful, I know.
4. Music – Stop Avoiding it. I can’t believe I’m really saying that because Lord knows it can be so distracting to me at times, but I’ve found over the last week with my newly acquired obsession with “Local Natives” that new tunes are necessary sometimes and since my old playlist isn’t exactly giving me the motivation it used to it’s time to let some new songs into my vision. My sister is making me a mix CD based on my acceptance and enjoyment of her “Local Natives” suggestion so hopefully there will be some more goodies to get addicted to on there. Any other suggestions are welcome 🙂
SUCCESS – I listened to several new tunes this month at the aid of my sister and Heather (aka edgyauthor) and they’ve been quite beneficial to my writing.
Overall grade for the month? A sad “D”, which as stated in previous month’s goal reviews was never a passing grade in my home, even a “C” wasn’t passing. Shame on me. You would think with less goals to focus on it would have been a lot easier to complete them, but apparently my mind wanted to be elsewhere for the better part of this month.
Fingers crossed this is not the case this month….
Now, new goals for September:
1. Write – I’m shooting for 20,000 words again. I came close last month and if I just stay focused I can do it this month.
2. Read – I can’t pretend I’d be capable of staying away from a book for longer than a week so I’m not going to even attempt to tame my addiction right now. Plus reading keeps my writing sharp, I have to do it! But since I’m proving to blow through books at ridiculous speeds now (for me at least), I’ll up the goal by 1. Read 4 books for September.
3. Buying Books – So I’ve already ordered the next three Dark-Hunter books, even though I bargained with myself last month after my sick shopping splurge that I wouldn’t be able to buy more books until October. The idea of that, I realize now, is just ridiculous. This is me we’re talking about here. I’m like a wild beast for them. But I will try and keep it a bit tamed. I have a book on pre-order this month and if I buy anymore books it will only be more Dark-Hunter books as they are fairly cheap and I will have almost all of them soon anyway.
4. Weight – 5lbs. This has to happen. It’s no longer something I can keep overlooking. My weight is at the ‘spiraling out of control’ point and I can’t even stand to look at myself. That’s a problem. Plus I already promised my sister we’d do weight watchers together in preparation for her wedding next year. I have a lot more to lose than she does, but somehow it’s easier when you’re doing it with someone else. As far as working out (which is a necessity in my battle with this fat suit), I have to find something. I did Wii this weekend and thought I was going to die, but it was fun. It’s something I may steal from my Mom. Or I suppose with fall drawing near I could actually go to the track. All I know is I need cardio – BAD!
5. Music – Let it keep coming. Obviously it’s helping me write more consistently again and so I won’t stifle it. Time to update the book’s soundtrack though as it has changed greatly from what it once was.
6. Pray – I’ve fallen out of this habit and nothing good ever comes of that. Maybe it’s why I continue to get little spikes of depression more than usual lately and maybe my stress level over other issues wouldn’t be so high if I remembered to pay Him the respect He deserves.
So that’s it, September goals… Let’s hope it’s a better month next month than it was last month.
Peace – Sarah
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