I wrote this blog post yesterday but honestly, it feels very insignificant to me in light of all that is happening in our country right now with people losing their homes and family members to floods and fires. I am especially heartbroken by the recent flooding in Kerrville, Texas which has taken the lives of so many. As a lot of you know, I lived in Texas for 14 years before moving back to the Midwest last year. Texas and Texans will always hold a special place in my heart. My brother, Brian, still lives in Austin, about an hour from all the flooding. Thank you to all the first responders who are working so hard to help the people of Texas!
Can you believe we are halfway through 2025? We are actually more than halfway because the halfway point was July 2nd. Like many people, I enjoy setting goals or making resolutions each January and I made a few at the beginning of this year.
Since we’ve reached the midpoint in the year, I thought it might be a great opportunity to evaluate my progress and see how I’m doing. Why is this important? I think a mid-year review helps us to see how we’re doing and where we stand with regard to our original goals set in January. Were they realistic? If we need to, we can make adjustments to our goals or even release them if they aren’t working for us.
Besides being more active, which seems to be one of my goals every year, my other goals revolved around writing new material and learning to do a better job marketing my books. I also made a resolution to keep a daily gratitude journal and to have a grateful attitude each day.
So far, I think I’m doing fairly well. I found my Fitbit and started wearing it again and I’ve more than doubled my daily steps each day. I don’t know who came up with the 10,000-step goal but I’m not there yet! I do enjoy swimming in the summer so that also helps me be more active.
I’ve really enjoyed keeping a gratitude journal. I keep it simple and write one sentence about something I’m grateful for each day. I know, you would think a journal would be longer, but this is what works to keep me in a grateful frame of mind. I think about what I’m grateful for each morning during my coffee and prayer time.
The older I get, the more I understand the value of keeping my goals manageable. I read the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear a couple of months ago, and one of the key takeaways for me was to start with small, attainable goals rather than big goals that would overwhelm me and set me up for failure.
In February, I began blogging weekly and that has helped me get back into a regular writing routine again after some time off. I’ve also written two new stories, and hope to publish at least one of them next year as a children’s book. I’d still like to write five mornings a week, but if I’m honest about it, I end up writing two or three mornings each week.
I have a friend who introduced me to the Reedsy courses…have you heard of them? www.reedsy.com Through this website, I have taken several book marketing and social media marketing courses. They offer both free and paid coursework on various topics that are of interest to writers and authors.
My son, Ryan Sever, author of “Cardboard Profit” has shown me how to do Meta advertising on Instagram and Facebook. Ryan taught me how to target my advertising to various groups of people who might be interested in my books rather than boring my Facebook friends with book posts all the time. The advertising usually begins the same day (after a short review process by Meta) and I’ve seen immediate results in the form of many book orders on my author website and on Amazon. I am both delighted about and grateful for this uptick in orders!
My mid-year assessment is that I’ve done well in working toward the goals I set at the beginning of the year. I want to continue building on the progress I’ve made, especially in the areas of physical activity and new writing projects.
How are YOU doing with your progress toward your goals for 2025?
