“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