Are you 2018 goals vague dreams or do you have a plan? No, really.

At the moment, I have a vague dream.

Need to work on that.

It’s Sunday, January 7, 2018. Let’s see:

1. Visiting family, all 13 of them, have now left town.
2. School for my two boys starts tomorrow.
3. We have a place to live (and are not planning on moving at least through high school).
4. My former business is so gone I can’t even see it in my mind anymore. (Woo hoo!)
5. There are no more excuses.
6. There is no more yesterday.
7. There isn’t even tomorrow.
8. There is only today.

Yet I don’t have a solid, numbered list plan for 2018.

Off the top of my head:

1. Write Charlie Holiday fiction.
2. Write more in the Li & Lu series.
3. Record Kite Hill and ESD for audio.
4. Write a follow-up to Every Single Day (maybe ESD KIDS).
5. Record ESD as a podcast and intersperse it with ESD guests.
6. Find more partnerships (co-writing, co-promotion, list shares, etc.).
7. Edit and publish (?) the romance book with my partner.
8. Submit more guests posts.
9. Get more speaking opportunities (podcasts, radio, video).

Hmm, what else?

That’s it. That’s off the top of my head. The top 5 are pretty solid. But when are they going to happen? What are the deadlines? What’s the process, the steps, the actual dates and timelines and tasks and checkboxes?

Yeah, I don’t have that.

Last year was very straightforward: publish Every Single Day by Oct. 17, 2017. That’s it. Done.

This year? Not so much.

How can I change that?

Deadlines. Dates. Goals.

I vaguely remember myself saying to myself in November that I’d have “something” published for Charlie Holiday in time for 20booksLondon on Feb 3.

It’s a start.

I can build on that. It’s a beginning point. That’s all I need. I can go from there.

So I’ve got that going for me.

What’s on your agenda for 2018?