Happy 2010! Pronounced twenty-ten, by JC. I hope your year is off to a grand
start. As I write this, I'm wondering how many of my readers actually make (and
keep) resolutions. I disdain the word "resolution," it just sounds so formal. I
"hereby resolve to stop eating Cheetos!" I prefer goals. It's short and sweet.
"One of my goals is to eat more fruit than Cheetos!" Much better!
Even if you're in middle school or high school. You can (and should) have goals.
Goals are just steps to better. Each day, you should awaken with the goal to be
better at something. A better student, daughter, friend, athlete. Just better.
Professional athletes awaken with the drive to not just be better, but to be the
best. Strivinig to be the best is even better than striving to be better! (Say that
aloud ten times fast!) It's all about self improvement. The one thing I know for
sure (as the wise Oprah would say) is that I can control my road to better. I
can choose good over evil. I can choose to eat a pear instead of a Snickers bar.
(I'll try that one tomorrow, as I lick chocolate from my fingertips.) I can choose
to take the stairs instead of the escalator or walk up the escalator if there are no
stairs. The Up escalator is for moms with strollers to give their children a thrill
ride as they tilt them backwards. Just kidding.
In my series, Tanisha, Lori, Rashanda, Maria, Grace and Justine are fourteen
year old girls who are trying to muddle through their middle school, teenage
drama with style and grace. They awaken each day committed to being better
friends and better people. They fumble and bumble, and the next day they keep
going. In book 3, Chemistry, Chaos & God's Grace, the girls have to deal with a
devastating death that they think will kill them, but it doesn't. They hobble along
on their road to better. That's the example that we should follow.
Someone once wrote that the road to success is paved one humiliating failure
after another. Amen to that. When I was a commercial print model, I faced
rejection almost daily. I would arrive at an audition hopeful that I could land the
commercial or photo spread. I would stare at my competition praying that it was
my turn to grab the brass ring. Sometimes I was chosen, but more often than
Bad A Girls Gotta Have a Goal January 1, 2010
not, I wasn't. Later, once I saw the print ad or commercial and saw who beat me
for the role, I would sigh and feel bad about myself. "Why'd they choose her over
me?" I'd mope. "I'm just as cute, thin, funny, fill in the blank" as she is.
Gradually I learned not to take the rejection personal. I realized that it was just
the nature of the beast. But the rejection stung each and every time. I set a goal
to read while I waited for an audition, because reading relaxes me. I found that
when I entered auditions engrossed in a juicy novel, it was a more relaxed
audition experience.
One of my goals is to blog more regularly. But sometimes when I come to my
website and see that I still don't have that many members I'm not motivated to
blog. "Why should I blog? No one reads my blogs, blah, blah, blah" I whine like
a ten year old. But then I write anyway. I love writing, even if I'm only writing for
a small, devoted following. "One day, I will have hundreds of thousands of hits
on my blog space and someone will hire me to write a weekly or monthly
column," I tell myself. A Girl's Gotta Have a Goal!
What are your goals? Have you written them down? You should. Get in the
habit of striving to be better each and every day. Here's a pithy analogy that
should help you focus on your goals.
1. Treat your goals like a patient 2. Create admissions paperwork for your
goals-write them down! 3. Have a good bed side manner - Speak life and
positive affirmations to your goals. 4. Check your goal's vital signs to make sure
they're s.m.a.r.t. (specific, measurable, achievable, results oriented, timely) Are
they realistic goals? 5. Check your goal monitor like a nurse - modify your goals
as needed. 6. Have a friend serve as doctor of your goals by making rounds to
make you accountable to your goals. 7. Learn C.P.R. on your goals and breathe
life into them by jump starting goals before they flat line! 8. Visit the gift shop and
reward yourself for accomplishing a goal. 9. Don't mix your meds -Make sure
your reward doesn't interfere with one of your goals. i.e. If you just finished
reading one of my novels, celebrate by reading the next one. Don't chow a pint
Bad A Girls Gotta Have a Goal January 1, 2010
of ice cream to celebrate! 10. If you can dream it, you can achieve it - Don't let
the calendar dictate whether your goals have flatlined. Start each day with the
goal to be better. You have the power to accomplish your goals!
Remember, you can never have too many good friends or too many goals! A
girl's Gotta Have a Goal!