Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou: Cruising on a Sea of Words series

Tako Drummers ringing in the New Year

Each year, it is tradition for me to ring in the New Year by compiling a list of goals to take me through the upcoming twelve months. My writing projects head the list, with reading goals close behind. Some goals appear year after year, not for lack of accomplishment but rather because they bear repeating on an annual basis.

Healthy lifestyle goals top this chart since my total hip replacement in 2018, diagnosis of pre-diabetes early in 2019, followed by surgeries and radiation treatments for DCIS in 2019-2020. Whether I reach or exceed a goal, my satisfaction is the same. Only when I totally miss the mark do I feel any measure of disappointment.

For 2021, I've set a reasonable bar that reflects what I plan to accomplish over the next year in terms of:

1.) Reading

2.) Writing & marketing, and

3.) Healthy living.

I fear neither success nor failure. My concern is about setting a goal to accomplish something that is a questionable measure of my success or failure, whether as a writer specifically or as a contributor to society in general.

How do you measure the success of your goals?

 

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

Hau'oli: Happy;

Makahiki: Year, age, annual;

Hou: New.

  

 

Happy New Year to You

and

Much Success in Your Future.

*****

REWARDING YOURSELF for GOALS MET

It takes a while for me to compile a list of goals each year. The list isn’t just a Jack Sparrow “guideline” of wishes and hopes and dreams, but of specific plans to accomplish tasks and projects. I need to know where I’m going and how I plan to get there.

There are major goals interspersed with small, quickly accomplished goals on the list, so I don’t get discouraged by lengthy projects that require weeks or months to complete. The lengthy projects are broken down into bite-sized steps, also to keep frustration at a minimum. The purpose is to keep moving forward, even when something seemingly drags me backwards. With an eye always focused on the end results, even when moving backwards I don’t lose sight of that Hawaiian Heritage bracelet.

What does a Hawaiian Heritage bracelet have to do with my 2014 goals? Ah, but everything.

When I decided to write my Pepper Bibeau mystery series, the name I conjured up for my protagonist was Kai-Ena Lehua Bibeau. To cement the name, I purchased a Hawaiian Heritage bracelet with the name “Kai-Ena” scrolled in black on its face. After I published my first novel, FOR EVERY ACTION, I purchased a second Hawaiian Heritage bracelet. One of my favorite flowers, the hibiscus, highlights the band’s design.

One thing that is true of Hawai'i, and of women's fashion, you can never have too many bracelets!

In 2013, after publishing my third Pepper Bibeau mystery, WITH FIERY VENGEANCE, which is set in Hawaii, I wanted to purchase another bracelet. After all, along with 13 other authors, I had also compiled and published MYSTERY IN PARADISE 13 Tales of Suspense in November, 2013. But other goals for 2013 eliminated the possibility.

That means accomplishing my 2014 goals must include such a reward, and therefore becomes a goal within itself. A win-win situation!

You do reward yourself for meeting your goals, don't you, major as well as small or quick accomplishments?