“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” —Zig Ziglar
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As we approach the end of 2025, it’s a time to get together with friends and family, enjoy good food and fellowship, and celebrate the joy of the season. Oh yeah, and review that list of goals we wrote down at the beginning of the year to see how we did.
Each time I review my list of goals for a year, I think of that song from The Mikado where Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, sings “I’ve Got a Little List,” which turns out to be a very long list indeed. Here’s a fifteen-second clip from the Austin Gilbert & Sullivan Society performance (with my favorite actor playing the role of Ko-Ko) to illustrate:
Why set goals?
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” —Yogi Berra
Setting a goal means you know where you want to go. A goal focuses the mind and gives clarity and direction. Most of us lead complicated lives with lots of things to do, so having a list of goals keeps us from getting overwhelmed by the volume of it all
Not only is it motivating to have something to shoot for, we all know the pleasure and sense of accomplishment that comes by realizing a goal and checking it off the list.
I read an article on goalbuddy.io recently that listed nine benefits of setting goals. (Read the article for an explanation of each one.)
1. You become more charismatic
2. Goals make you live longer and you are full of energy
3. Goals help you stay motivated during tough times
4. Life doesn’t just happen to you, you make life happen as you want it to be.
5. Goals unlock the potential of your heart
6. Goals provide you with the clarity in which direction to go
7. The goals focus filter solves the problem with overwhelming once and for all
8. You feel like you are winning the game of life and you want more of it
9. Goals help you learn and grow
It’s a good list. I particularly like #4, and I’d love to always make life happen as I want it to, but realistically, life does “just happen” sometimes. I missed one of my goals this year (completing the second Lady Pilot-in-Command novel) because of the time-consuming adventure of moving to a new home—something that wasn’t even on the radar at this time last year.
As for the rest of my 25 writing goals for 2025, I accomplished some, missed a few, and made progress on others. I even exceeded one: I intended to release one Reen & Joanie book in 2025, but I managed to publish two.
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Moving on to 2026
Now it’s time to make plans for 2026. The second Lady Pilot-in-Command novel tops the list, and I’ll carry over some of the goals that appear every year (e.g., a bi-weekly blog post on TKZ, monthly post on my blog, attend at least one writers conference).
As we finalize our lists, let’s keep in mind that wise guidance spoken by the Cheshire Cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”
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So TKZers: How about you? What were your goals for 2025? How did you do? Have you made your list for 2026 yet?
This is my last post for 2025. Wishing you all a healthy and happy holiday season. See you in 2026!
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The Reen & Joanie Detective Agency series
Smart sleuthing, real-world stakes, and heart—join Reen and Joanie as they chase clues, challenge assumptions, and prove that persistence and truth always matter. Both ebooks are on sale for the rest of the year. Click the image to go to the Amazon series page.
2025 was unusual for me in that I didn’t set a list of goals. I had only one thing in mind – to finish one book. The bad news? I didn’t finish it. The good news is that I at least worked on it steadily each week. I’ll take slow progress over no progress.
2025 has been a year of health issues & distractions. So goal for 2026 is still the same–to finish 1 book. But with the added goal that I want to ‘feel the groove’ of writing again. So often in 2025 my writing time felt mechanical because of the vast number of distractions both personally and in the world. Writing something, even in mechanical mode is still progress — thankfully we have the revision process to hone our first drafts. But to me there’s nothing more enjoyable than that feeling of immersion you get when you’re in the groove as you write your story. That is the fun of writing.
I don’t set annual goals. Heck, I hardly set daily goals. I just plod along doing things that need to be done, or that I want to do. I might make a to-do list every now and then, but after all my years on this planet, I’m aware of what works for me.
Goals need to be specific and measurable, so rather than saying “I’m going to travel,” I’ll say, “I’m going to take two trips, one domestic and one international, and then figure out where, and once that’s done, it’s a matter of taking all the requisite steps for each trip. And then getting the Hubster to make up his mind about some of the details so I can go ahead and get them on the calendar.
Kay, thanks for the reminder to review our goals periodically. I tend to be a tortoise, plodding slowly and steadily along, my eyes on the ground just ahead. I forget to look from the 30K foot view to see progress in this writing journey.
My main goal was to publish my writing craft book The Villain’s Journey-How to Create Villain’s Readers Love to Hate. Happily checked that off in July, encouraged by terrific blurbs from Jim Bell and Chris Vogler.
That led me an in unexpected new direction: speaking and teaching. I didn’t realize I’d enjoy teaching so much. Workshopping with serious writers to develop their antagonists is exhilarating. A new goal became lining up more appearances at conferences and college classes.
Since I’m lousy at conventional marketing (ads, social media promotion, etc.), these presentations sell the book in a way that’s more comfortable for my personality.
For several years, another goal has been to get my books up on Ingram Spark. Missed it again this year. I try from time to time but their system remains frustrating so I give up.
Another missed goal was to start a Substack. Carry that over into next year.
Checked off a couple other goals like publishing a box set of my thrillers and building up more editing clients.
Yeah, 2025 has been a good year 🙂
Wishing you happy holidays and a productive 2026, my friend!