I avoided making any New Year’s resolution this year because life is so atypical over the holidays. I knew I’d come up with goals that didn’t necessarily reflect where I wanted to go. But, now things have settled down a bit and it’s time.

At the ACFW conference last fall in Denver, Debbie Macomber spoke about setting goals, both long term and short term goals, and its importance in reaching achievements. I thought what she said made a lot of sense. You can’t get much done if you don’t set out to do anything. Debbie talked about making 5 and 10 year goals, both career and personal, and then in terms of lifetime goals–those things that you really want to accomplish or that you really feel called to do.

I think tonight before I work on my latest story I’m going to do what Debbie suggested and write down:

5 things I want to get done this week

5 things I want to get done this year

5 things I want to accomplish in the next 5-10 years

and 5 things I want to accomplish at some point in my life…

And I’m going to be specific. I’m not going to write that I want to be more organized. I’m going to set a goal that says I will do “this certain thing” in order to be organized. For example, I’m going to run more, but instead of writing “run more” I’m going to write that I want be able to run a 5k by this spring. I think being specific will not only help me know clearly whether or not I’ve met the goal but it will also make it easier to stay on track in achieving it.

My favorite was the Donald Maass workshop on Writing the Breakout Novel. This was hands down the best writing workshop I’ve ever been to. Maass was great at talking craft. I especially liked his ideas on deepening the characters.

After that, I enjoyed participating in the book signing, listening to Debbie Macomber (the keynote speaker),

Debbie Macomber and me

and the My Book Therapy workshop with Susan May Warren and Rachel Hauck. I also sat in on the mentoring workshop given by my agent Chip MacGregor. At the close of the workshop, he asked me and my very own mentor, Margaret Daley, to talk about how we met and how she advised me through the early hurdles of publishing.

The awards ceremony was a little disappointing to me. I was expecting there to be more fanfare, music, a man on the side announcing the award presenters in his deep radio voice. I think it would have been more fun like that. Instead of the same two people presenting all the awards. Maybe even have Board members and past winners present.

The real fun at conferences, however, is the meeting people and the networking. And ACFW was great for this. Like I said, it’s big but not too big that you can’t find people. I met so many great people. I hope I can go again next year. Although I’m serious when I say I might drive. I hate layovers and delays at airports… not fun.

So, if you were at ACFW, please a comment. Tell me what you loved/hated.