Tag Archive for: Rewards

How to Meet Those Yearly Goals Everyone is Talking About

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by Sparkle Abbey

We love the fresh start of a new year! With 2020 in the rear-view mirror, a fresh start has never felt more important than it does right now. We are strong believers that our present path doesn’t have to determine our final destination but can represent where we started. And we’re starting with a clear vision of what we want out of 2021.

For those of you who have followed us, you know we LOVE to set goals. Not just writing goals, but spiritual, health, personal, financial, and career goals, too. We’ve talked about the importance of setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) in the past, so this time we’d like to share some tips that help us keep on track with achieving our goals. Because honestly, setting the goal is the easy part. Following through is a challenge.

 1.       Write Them Down

We do mean, write. There’s something to be said
about handwriting your goals that helps you visualize what you want to accomplish.
And if you’re like us, without writing them down, you’re bound to forget by the
end of the month. When you see those goals in writing it helps you focus. There’s
a fascinating article about the
psychology of writing down goals that explain the relationship between writing
down goals and achieving them better than we can. Take a quick minute and check
it out.

2.      
Tell Someone

It’s all about accountability. Share your goals with
someone. We all need a cheerleader in our corner to motivate us to keep going
when we’re tired or discouraged.

3.      
Do Something Every Day

You’ve heard the saying before, “How do you eat an
elephant? One bite at a time.” It’s similar to meeting your goal. You meet goals
by taking one step at a time. For a financial goal, that can be as simple as
putting $1 a day into an envelope, or instead of buying that latte, Venmo that money
to your savings account. If it’s a fitness goal, schedule a twenty-minute
meeting with yourself to take a walk. You get the idea.

4.      
Accept That You Will Have A Setback

Hey, life happens. All you have to do is remember 2020.
Enough said. When you have a setback, readjust and don’t feel guilty about it. The time you spend feeling guilty is time you could have spent towards reaching
your goal.

5.      
Check-in

Remember when we said to tell someone? This is where you check-in
with that person or persons and hold yourself accountable. What did you do to
get yourself closer to your goal? What worked? What didn’t? Maybe they can
offer some advice if what you’re doing isn’t working the way you had
envisioned.

6.      
Celebrate Your Successes

When you reach that goal, make sure you take the time to
celebrate. Rewards, big or small, will help you stick to your goals. Pro tip:
don’t let the reward set you back from meeting other goals. If you’re trying to
improve your fitness and diet, don’t celebrate your new promotion or
outstanding book sales on a couple of margaritas. Maybe have a vodka with club
soda and a squeeze of lime. Just sayin’.

We hope these tips work for you. Now go forth and conquer 2021. We believe in you!


Sparkle Abbey is actually two people, Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter, who write the national best-selling Pampered Pets cozy mystery series. They are friends as well as neighbors so they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. (But don’t tell the other neighbors.) 

They love to hear from readers and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, their favorite social media sites. Also, if you want to make sure you get updates, sign up for their newsletter via the SparkleAbbey.com website.

Rewards

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Lila Dare, author of the Southern Beauty Shop series from Berkley Prime Crime, joins us today. The first book in the series, Tressed to Kill, debuted May 4 and got a starred review from Publishers Weekly and 4 ½ stars from Romantic Times. That might seem like reward enough for a first time novelist, but Lila says we need to think about how we reward ourselves.

Reward (n.) 1. Something given in return for good or, sometimes, evil or for service or merit 2. Money offered, as for the capture of a criminal, the return of something lost 3. Compensation, profit, return

Many of us writers think the ultimate reward is becoming a New York Times best-selling author who outsells J.K. Rowling and James Patterson put together. Or, if we’re more literarily oriented, we aspire to a National Book Award and an Oscar in the same year (because, of course, our literary book was made into a movie directed by James Ivory and starring Emma Thompson and Daniel Day Lewis). Even the most optimistic of us, however, have to admit that those rewards are not likely getting bestowed on us five minutes (or even five years) after we start writing. So how do we reward ourselves in the interim?

The longer I’m in this writing/publishing business, the more convinced I am that rewarding ourselves for the accomplishment of milestones along the way is critical. Rewards give us a sense of pride in what we’ve done and motivate us. You can’t wait until you finish a manuscript, or land an agent, or get a three-book contract to reward yourself (although those amazing and fantabulous accomplishments deserve huge rewards). How about rewarding yourself for reaching your writing goal for the month (whether that’s 10,000 words, the re-write of your ending scene, or an in-depth interview with your protagonist)? Or, consider rewarding yourself for the accomplishment of a writing-related task you hate: sending out another ten queries, setting up a Facebook page/blog/Twitter account to promote your book, pitching your WIP to an agent or editor at a conference, conducting a difficult interview. We too often dismiss these sorts of accomplishments, shrug them off, and get onto the next task, when we really deserve a “Way to go!” for tackling them.

All of which begs the question of what makes an appropriate reward. Clearly, you’re not going to hand yourself a lovely certificate or plaque, as many traditional workplaces do. I struggle with this question because my go-to awards for myself tend to a) be ingestible (and fattening), b)cost money, or c) both of the above. (I am especially sensitive to the question because I have two tweenage daughters and I hate to set them up for a life-time of weight issues by celebrating their successes with food: National Junior Honor Society induction—let’s get a sundae!

Volleyball team MVP—let’s have some chocolate cake! Won the talent contest—Cinnabon here we come!) So, I offer a list of some of the non-edible, not-too-expensive rewards I bestow on myself:

Read a non-writing-related magazine (I like More and InStyle) without once feeling guilty;

Give yourself a manicure or pedicure with a fun new color (my current fave is a pale orange called Candy Corn);

Call a friend and chat for half an hour without once mentioning writing or publishing;

Go for an hour-long walk or hike (I realize this might be a penance and not a reward for some, but I like working out);

Go to the gym/health club and do nothing except sit in the hot tub,steam room, or sauna;

Play with your pet;

Spend an hour enjoying a non-writing-related hobby;

Volunteer;

Do something your kid wants to do and really throw yourself into it, whether it’s playing Littlest Pet Shop, doing soccer drills, or shopping at Claire’s (gag me);

Buy a new kind of tea/coffee or a new variety of wine/beer and give it a try, maybe something a tad pricier than your usual.

Obviously, rewards are very personal—what tickles my fancy might make you retch and I might rather get a root canal than “reward” myself with an activity or item you find wonderful. The point is to reward yourself in a meaningful way for the small milestones along the way, as well as the huge successes.

I’d love to hear how you reward yourselves (or how you reward your kids’ accomplishments) and will send a signed copy of Tressed to Kill to one commenter. Thanks very much to the Stiletto Gang for having me on the blog today!

Lila Dare
http://www.liladare.com/