Before making your New Year’s Resolutions, take a look at the past
It’s that time of year when resolutions are made for the new year and we look back upon what we’ve accomplished in the last one.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t accomplish the goals I set at this time last year. At first glance, that is discouraging. But then I took the time to list some of the things I did accomplish:
- Won a Gold Medal awarded by the Military Writers Society
- Won a Bronze Medal awarded by Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards, and attended the ceremony in Miami.
- Was a Finalist in Foreword Magazine’s BOOK OF THE YEAR contest
- Took a gun class and went to the shooting range
- Published two articles in national publications
- Published three books and wrote seventy-five percent of a fourth book
- Attended the Special Operations Forces International Conference in Tampa
- Toured the UDT SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce, Fl.
- Volunteered for the Mosby Heritage Area, decorating Llangollen, a historic plantation near Middleburg, Va.
- Toured Green Garden, an antebellum home near Middleburg, Va.
- Volunteered at the GI Film Festival and met the survivors of Benghazi: “Tanto,” “Tig,” and “Oz.” (Kris, John, Mark)
- Attended the Romance Writers of America in San Diego; Toured Coronado and the USS Midway
- Attended SWAT Academy in Baton Rouge (Rode in a chase car going 110 mph and shot an AK-47)
- Attended the Knob Creek Machine Gun shoot in Kentucky and rode in a Vietnam era Huey helicopter
- Ran the lights for live performances, including a two-week run of “A Christmas Carol, at a local performing arts theater.
From this list I see that I at least I wasn’t sitting still in 2016. And it helped me see how important it is to see what was accomplished — not what wasn’t.
So if you’re getting ready to write down your goals for 2017, take the time to write down what you’ve done in 2016. It just might surprise you.