Well the first of my goals for 2012 is down the toilet. I didn’t win the $31 million Lotto draw last night. So instead of shopping for a new, highly expensive car this morning, I’ve got to settle for a cup of coffee (instant I can’t afford one of those fancy schzmancy machines) and a blog.

It’s the day of resolutions, when all the world unites in a determination to convince themselves  this year will be different. This year they will make more money, lose weight, read more books, exercise more, quit smoking and anything else they can think of in a blur of often alcohol induced optimism. Anything is possible on the first day of the year.

Why then do we so quickly discard the aims by the 2nd of January? How does life interfere so quickly with what we want to do? I read somewhere only 3% of people ever achieve their goals. Really? Those 3% must be busy people achieving everything while the rest of us languish in coulda, woulda, shoulda, will one day territory.

As you know I set my goals back in November, my Project 44 is dedicated to ME. It’s all about ME.  There’s the usual goals of losing weight, getting organised and then just for fun I threw in stuff like write a novel, start a blog (and get readers), finish Shambles Manor, travel and my personal favourite, enter five competitions a day.

There are days when I feel really overwhelmed by the goals I’ve set. But I know they are important to me and I really do want to have a red hot go at achieving them all this year.

The first month of Project 44 has really ended up being devoted to the blog, I have written those 9,000 words toward a novel, but essentially the blog has taken up a lot of my time. It’s made me realise that what I was really saying with those two goals (create a blog, write a novel) was that I wanted to write. Funny how as you get into achieving your goals you discover that what you set out to do may not be exactly what you meant.

Spending 30 days trying to write 2000 words a day in the NaNoWriMo challenge made me realise that perhaps I don’t have the level of commitment needed for a novel. Subscribing to a number of authors on Twitter made me realise these people spend YEARS on the one project. That’s right YEARS. Five years on one book, four years on another. Dear Lord I don’t have five years to spend on one project. Seriously you are lucky to hold my attention for one week, let alone years. Let’s not forget this has got to fit in around soccer, touch footy, dance and what else? Oh yes the real world job that actually pays the mortgage.

Blogging, on the other hand, even though it is time consuming, is pretty instant gratification. I write a piece and within minutes sometimes I can see someone has read it (not sure who if they don’t leave a comment – don’t forget to say hi if you are dropping by) but I know it’s been interesting enough for someone to at least click in for a little while. Blogging also suits my scanner brain. The scanner is interested in everything but has trouble finishing anything. In my blogging world I can talk about anything I want to and flit between subjects willy nilly and that’s OK, and 500 words isn’t a big commitment so even I can get it finished.

So what have I learnt so far? I’ve learnt I want to write every day. It may be working on a novel, creating a blog piece or articles for other sources but writing every day.

I’ve also made some baby steps towards my other goals but I’ll share more about them towards the end of January, when hopefully I will have made some substantial progress.

Now moving away from me for a second, my new year’s resolution for my family. I want us to create magnificent memories. I want us to enjoy some special, fun times together that the children will be able to look back on with love and fondness when they leave home, because that future is rapidly approaching.

I hope you are all enjoying your new year. Have you made any resolutions?