It's coming on - YAY. There are a couple of keys that have decided to take a vacation LOL! But, I'm managing without them.

I'm VERY thankful! VERY VERY Thankful.

It looks like all your important keys are working to me!

I find it really helps to have my priorities, 5 year goals, and 1 year goals by my desk. I glance at it each morning and keep myself on track!

I was just looking at my 5 year goals and it is amazing that I am actually making progress towards them! James is in the final weeks of earning his bachelor's degree. He is about to graduate from college! That is a HUGE item off my list.

Also amazingly I am down to 129 pounds today, and my 5 year goal was to reach 125 pounds! So I am almost there! I am in the home stretch!

Wow, so soon I may need to revist my goal list because there will be too few things on it What a great state to be in!

I want to encourage everyone out there. If you set up your priorities, and then your goals, and then take baby steps, you really do get there. One little step at a time

Once you create your five year goals, be sure to then break it out more near-term with your one year goals!

Setting Up One Year Goals

Lisa, how amazing that you are getting somewhere with your five year list. It seems like five years is such a long time away but really - you gave yourself a direction for this time that you would not otherwise have had available!

That is exactly true Jilly - the five year goals are about a *direction*. They aren't about things to do. They are just about setting yourself in a given direction. If you do that - and then work on the smaller goals, you can get there!

We are approaching 2011! This is the perfect time to first revisit your priorities, and then once those are set, to then revisit your 5 year goals! What would you like to accomplish? Any changes to your list?

Okay, I went to my personal goal thread and re-worked my five year goals. I am really happy with them now. It only took three years to establish five year goals that I feel right with.

I have just finished revisiting my overall life priorities in the Priority Setting Thread. Now that those are re-set, I am ready to tackle a revisiting of my Five Year (long term) goals.

Previously my five year goals were:

* BellaOnline Growing!
* Next Weddings Books Published
* One romance book published
* Son graduate from college (only a few classes to go)
* House organized (day by day!)
* Yoga and Piano
* 125 pounds
* Earn a Bachelor's Degree


As I look at these now, some of them are a little vague. So let's see what I can do to be more specific.

* BellaOnline at 90% Editor Capacity
I think that's more specific, and it's what I care about. I don't have a specific traffic aim, because every site is different here. Our aim is on editor growth and training. So we want to help as many editors as we can. I don't think it's realistic to aim for 100% full sites because editors have babies, they get married, and there will always be a reason they need to move on sometimes. I think 90% is reasonable as a goal!

* Native American Wedding Book Complete
I think that's more realistic. My publisher is having problems and I am hoping they will pull through it. So I am content to wait for the book to be published - but I should have it *finished*.

* One Romance Book Published
I have six written and another 3 almost done. I will continue to keep the cycle going of sending them out to publishers. Sometimes there's an **8 month** turnaround time before I find out if they're going to use it, so that is frustrating. Right now I only submit to one place and wait for a response. I feel that's ethically fair, but I need to look at other options I think, otherwise this could take decades.

My son is just waiting for his graduation processing to complete, so that is great! That's off my list

* House Organized
Some days I think this isn't even possible. I've been trying for so long. But I think things are getting better. It is really important for my long term health and time efficiency, so I need to leave it on here and figure something out.

* Piano and Guitar
I did learn how to play guitar, so that's cool! Now I need to find time to work on that and to play on my piano. One issue is I can't GET to my keyboard because piles of junk surround it. Very sad. So something to work on. Plus I stole the keyboard's speakers to put onto my son's computer. Hmmmm.

* Advanced Yoga and <130 Pounds
I used to say 125 pounds but I don't think an exact number is necessary any more. I am at 128 and am very happy. I feel no urge to fight for 3 pounds just to hit a certain number. I want to stay active, to do yoga, to start doing land aerobics rather than water aerobics. So this seems better. But then again it's more a maintenance than a goal. I should have something to work TOWARDS. OK I updated it to say "Advanced Yoga" which means I want to be able to do poses I can't do now. That sounds like fun.

As a side note I just had my annual checkup and my doctor is thrilled with my blood work and everything else. It wasn't bad before, but she just reiterated that I am doing so well and I should keep at it, that others would love to have my numbers. So low carb is working!!

* Earn a Bachelor's Degree
I'm so thrilled that I'm entering the final classes of Year 1!! Only about 2 more years to go! It was very challenging, but I'm doing it and maintaining my straight As. I am very happy I started towards this goal. I am learning SO much which helps me daily in what I do.

So those are my new, tweaked five year / long term goals - and I feel very happy about them!

Hmmmm. Should I add anything else to them? Let me ponder ...

I think as an overall set this is a good start! As I pondered I started to think about making goals for EVERY site I run, and I do think that's a good idea, but I think that should be separate from these core goals.

I'm looking at my long term goal list and "piano and guitar" is very vague. How do you work towards that? So I think I am going to say *Proficient* at piano and guitar. I want to be able to smoothly play a number of songs. That is better.

HA! One of my long term goals was to learn to play the harp. I got a lap harp back in Christmas 2005. I haven't even taken the thing out of it's bag since Spring 2006. :::sigh:::

Maybe we need to get our instruments out, mark a practice time, and leave them where we trip over them constantly LOL!

Now my guitar I'm much better at - but I'm motivated because I want to play and sing in front of people and I love sharing songs that I've written. It's so much easier. But I guess I could do the same thing with the harp.