I’m not usually one for setting goals for the new year as they feel forced and unrealistic.  BUT that has changed over the last couple of years.  I’ve started setting goals for my writing with an image I create and set as my computer’s wallpaper for the year to encourage and prod me ever onward.

Last year, my goal was to just “grow.”  I thought I blogged about this, but … apparently I just tweeted that image out.  sigh

That is still a goal for me, to not get so caught up in striving, but to enjoy the journey and the process of growth.  This year, that goal has shifted just a little bit.  It’s still about growing, but it’s also about the climb.  I ran across this quote by Lee Bennett Hopkins and it became my mantra.  (Thus I made it into the following image.)

That is part of what is forming my goals this year.  This last year, I didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to (not as many new drafts written, not as many submissions, etc.).  Partly because of family drama (my dad’s cancer and death), partly because of depression and exhaustion (work had its own drama too).  Yet I’m continuing onward.

And this is what forms my goals this year (and my new image).  I will write more, I will submit more, I will continue to grow and push ever onward.  I will “persist.”

I refuse to quit.  I will keep doing everything I’m doing (which I know is moving in the right direction, however slowly it may be) and I will eventually break through to success.  Maybe I won’t succeed this year, maybe not even the next year.  But I will persist until I do.  Persistence is the ONLY key to success.  And so I will persevere.