2015 Review and 2016 Goals

Last year, I wrote a post about my 2015 writing goals. I thought I would check in on those goals and see where I really ended up this year. Let's take a closer look.

1. Publish two personal stories that I feel could help others.  Yep, I did that. There were two stories (three total posts) on The NotMom about some experiences I had in 2014 that I thought would be helpful to others. One was about my own medical challenges that year (part one and part two). The other was about my cat's. You will all be pleased to know that 2015 was a great year in terms of health and both of us are doing well. 
2. Apply for blogging awards. This I did not do. I still feel a little weird nominating myself for anything. However, a friend nominated me for Childfree Woman of the Year and I was awarded that honor for 2015. 
3. Be of service to others. This one may be the hardest to judge. I believe that I provided consistent, quality services to my clients. I have also been active in local politics here in Ashevlle, including my work with the Asheville Small Home Advocacy Committee. And, I helped launch the NotMom Summit. 
4. Focus on some of my personal projects. But this, I did. I published the booklet Your Job Search this year, which is available on Amazon.com. Sure, I probably could have done more work on my own projects, but every little bit counts. 

So what do I want to accomplish for 2016?

As I mentioned in last year's post, I like to assign a word to my year that helps me frame what I am going to do. 2016 is going to be a year of Transition. All good stuff, but stuff that will be revealed over the course of the year.

As for my personal goals, I'll take a stab.

1. Write more fiction. I haven't written much more than a short story in many, many years. But I was recently invited to a local writer's group and that has given me the motivation to revisit a novel idea that I had. In fact, it is expanded from a short story I wrote a few year's ago.  I'm not going to rush it, but I would love to have a first draft done by the end of the year. 
2. Get more customers. Marketing doesn't come naturally to most people, especially writer-types who tend to be more introverted. But every writer needs more clients, so I am going to focus on some additional marketing this year. Id' also like to update my branding to reflect what I am doing now.
3. Sell more books. Speaking of marketing, I need to apply that to my three book titles too. For Your Job Search, I need to focus on high schools, colleges, and staffing agencies. I need to figure out how to get it into the right hands. For How to Drink Craft Beer, maybe beer tourism organizations who often have some non-beer drinkers along for the ride. 
4. Speak more. I would also like to have more speaking engagements. I really enjoy sharing our tiny house story with others. I also really loved the work I did with the NotMom Summit. I would love to do more of that in 2016.