Putting me to shame!

I hope this link works - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4428343a10.html

Just in case it doesn't - here's a brief overview of the story.

A 10 year old boy who goes to a Junior School in NZ gets up at 6.30am every morning to write before he goes to school. He had his first novel published aged 9 and he has sold about 50 of each of his books and has orders for more.

Wow! What the kids are up to these days eh?

Of course - at the age of 10 I was working hard for the parents business and feeding the zoo of animals we had which is my excuse for not getting published by the time I left Primary School.

I'm not entirely sure what my excuse is these days but I am trying!

Currently 'thinking' about my edits on my NaNo 07 novel and also have some ideas bubbling for the next story. Have been doing lots of research on the web of how published authors edit their stories. Now I just need to sit down and get the edits made.

Methinks I need a deadline....

Some good, some bad...

I have not yet eaten any chocolate so I am doing well on that front.
I have a shiny heart sticker on the calendar from not eating chocolate yesterday and am well on the way to getting another today.
I must be quite a visual person and I defiently like stickers as seeing the stickers line up during the month of November as I was reaching my daily word count for NaNoWriMo prompted me onwards. I hope using them for the No Chocolate thing will help me stick with it.

As for this week's other goals....

• I was doing fairly well at bed before 10.30pm but blew it last night when I stayed in the bath for an hour with my iPod blaring (from speakers - I wasn't wearing my earphones in the bath!) and reading a book. I will make sure I get to bed before 10.30pm tonight and tomorrow (Friday) as well.
• It's been a bit hit and miss with the vegetables so I must try harder with this and keep track so I know how many I've eaten.
• I haven't made it to curves once yet this week (eek!) but did take the dog for a long walk on Wednesday. I'm going to pack my gym stuff to take to work tomorrow. If I don't go to the gym tomorrow I will go swimming with Graeme and I will definetly go to Curves on Saturday morning.
• I haven't done any editing of my NaNo manuscript yet this week so need to get some done over the weekend.

I feel really quite tired and have been quite emotional these last few days. I think this could be a reaction to coming off the pill. It's now been 15 days since I last took it. I have been taking Evening Primrose Oil and Vitamin B6 as they are supposed to be good for regulating hormones so will see how that goes. It's hard to find motivation when I am in this kind of mood and I've spent most of my 'free' time reading the last few days rather then focussing on my goals.
I am going to plan the weekend so I get a combination of things I need to do and things I want to do in the hope I do complete some tasks by rewarding myself with relaxation!

I'll see how it goes!

Researching...

In typical Kate fashion I have been doing lots of reading up on goal setting.

I tend to spend lots of time doing this then run out of steam when it comes to the actions required! But I am feeling determined this time.

I came across an interesting series of articles in Next magazine written by a life coach. The issue I have has installment 4 of 12 but I was lucky enough to find the previous articles on the life coaches website. There are also some work sheets and things on there that might be useful.

I am also interested to read a book that the life coach recommends...mainly because of it's quirky sounding title: 'Eat that Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done' by Brian Tracy. They have it at the library so will try and get my hands on that one. I, obviously, could do with some tips for stopping procrastination!

I'm off to Auckland with work tomorrow (Thursday) until Sunday. It's a new part of my job which I haven't experienced yet so I'm looking forward to that aspect but I'm not really happy about that length of time away from home at the moment. Having just got settled again at home after our big trip overseas and feeling really run down, working long days and being away from my bed and Graeme and the dog is going to be upsetting.

On the health side of things, I ended up at the doctor's on Monday lunchtime due to on-and-off chest pains I'd been having since Friday night. After an hour of being monitored I got to see a doctor and apparently I have acid reflux which really doesn't seem all that bad compared to the excruciating pain I was in. I've got some medication to take although I have been warned (by a friend) that the tablets can cause more problems then good. At this stage it's good because the pain has stopped but I shall monitor how I am feeling and make sure the pills don't do me any harm.

I haven't done much exercise this week and won't get started on that now until next week.

I do plan to take my NaNo manuscript with me to Auckland on the offchance I get some time to myself and can continue with my read through and editing. And I will be giving lots of thought to my goals and doing some more 'research' if I get the time.

And today I picked out images from Google Images that suit each of the catergories for my goals (2 examples above)...to help me visually link what I am saying to each of my goals.

Queen of procrastination

Being the queen of procrastination I have always had a difficult time sticking to new years resolutions and achieving my goals.

After some success last year...by achieving one of my long time ambitions - writing a novel - I decided if I can do that I should be able to achieve other goals as well.

Part of my novelling success was, in part, due to my broadcasting of what I was trying to achieve to as many people as possible. This was at the advice of Chris Baty who wrote 'No Plot, No Problem' and who is the creator of NaNoWriMo (National Novel writing Month). Being accountable for what I was setting out to achieve seemed to help me focus and carry on, even when the going got tough.

So I have decided to set up this blog to make myself accountable for my other goals in the hope and belief that I will achieve what I want to this year.

So that is why this blog is here. It will either become a tool of procrastination for avoiding other tasks or will become something I procrastinate about!

And yes, you could say I have procrastinated already this year as I am only just publishing my goals but I like to think I have been mulling them over to make them more meaningful and achievable ;-)