Philloverse Goals in Review 2012

Like many people, I set some goals/resolutions for myself this past year. Unlike some people, I haven't followed up on these goals on my blog.

So in the interest of full disclosure, it's time for some accountability. Watch me fail.

Attainable goals:
1) Continue to revise and polish my novel until it's agent-ready: DONE, though it's certainly not agent-ready yet. So maybe this is a DONE, SORT OF instead. I dunno. Whatever, I didn't really set parameters for my goals. Lesson learned.
2) Apply for writing fellowships: DONE
3) Apply for adjunct teaching positions: DONE
4) Pursue freelance writing opportunities: DONE
5) Read for one hour a day: EPIC FAIL. Wow, I totally dropped the ball on this one. Things got really busy for me this year. I moved. I went through four different jobs. I felt like I didn't have much time to breathe. Something had to give, and unfortunately, it was reading.

Ambitious goals:
1) Secure an agent for my novel: EPIC FAIL. Well if I don't think it's agent-ready yet, I highly doubt any agents will think it's agent-ready. So I really didn't try.
2) Get accepted for a writing fellowship: DONE. I've had to defer it, unfortunately, because of some life issues (i.e., all these job moves). But since my goal explicitly was to "get accepted," I'm counting this one.
3) Land an adjunct gig for fall 2012 or spring 2013: SORT OF DONE. This is another situation where, I had an opportunity to pursue an adjunct gig but, for a variety of reasons, had to say no. (I think my biggest goal for 2013 is to have some goals that aren't so frikkin' ambiguous.)
4) Revise three short stories that have been sitting in the belly of my laptop for years and secure publication for at least one: EPIC FAIL. I did more on this than I did reading, but I did precious little on it.
5) Apply for creative writing Ph. D programs (just in case...): EPIC FAIL. Once again, my chaotic year got the best of me and, like reading and revising, this fell by the wayside.
6) Put myself in a position where, going forward, I can earn enough money to get by on some combination of freelance writing and teaching and fellowship money: EPIC FAIL. 

After all my job hunting and interviewing, I do have a good job now where I have some stability. (Knock on wood.) So, after some chaos in my life for 2012, I feel like I'm back on the right track. I think what this list shows is that I was pretty good at the attainable goals, not so much on the ambitious goals. And so that's a challenge for me as I go forward.

Now it's time to come up with some goals for 2013.