What's Your Plan?

2017 is over, with all of its joy and sadness, fulfillment and disappointment, work and play. 2018 has begun, and all of its hope is still at its fullest.

Many people make New Year's resolutions, and we all laugh at how quickly they are shuffled to the shelf with our dusty copy of Great Expectations.

Many people focus on building habits instead of making resolutions that fail. Consistency is key here.

Many people choose a word of the year. According to myoneword.org, choosing one word to define and guide your year is the un-resolution.

I've tried them all, and perhaps you have, too. And still, after about January 15, I forget about them entirely until the inevitable revisit between Christmas and New Year's.

Not this year.

This year I'm going in with a plan. As a middle school teacher, I believed part of my job was teaching them how to plan as well as how to do. Give a twelve-year-old the direction to create a science project, and they'll stare at it for three months until they run crying to mom and dad the week before. You have to give them steps and time lines and check in with them now and then.

Seems like I haven't progressed much past the level of a twelve-year-old.

So this year, I've created a plan. It isn't overly detailed at this point; I can add specific details later to further explain my steps. Sufficient for now is where I want to go and a basic outline of how to get there. For instance, I want to use social media more effectively to promote my writing. (In the Shadow of Mr. Lincoln is due out Summer of 2018! You can still donate!)

But saying "use social media more" doesn't give me enough detail, so I have several people who I will approach, people who already do this successfully, who can teach me and give me a few tips. I am also following others on social media who clearly know what they're doing. Finally, I have loose deadlines penciled in, just to keep me moving forward.

The goals are concise, measurable, and achievable. Setting a goal for 1000 Instagram followers before September 2018 is unrealistic, but perhaps 200 isn't?

As I move forward, I will have to revisit these steps, because as I learn more from my mentors, physical and digital, I'll have more knowledge to work with.

So skip the resolutions, decide on habits to build, and choose a word to keep you focused. But as we welcome 2018, what's your plan?