Monday, December 29, 2008

The Boldness Pledge

This is an invitation. At this auspicious time of year, what would you like to promise yourself to boldly and resolutely do? I invite you to make that decision public here in the comments some time before the end of Friday. And I will do the same.

The more specific the goal, the better. Example: to get the whole house organized vs. to spend a minimum of two hours a week cleaning out closets and shelves, until they're in the desired condition. See how a specific might get more done?

What's important about going public? The person who does this is more likely to accomplish the goal. Also, she or he gains allies and resources that way. Things fall into place better when all the world and planets can see how they might help out.

I hope you'll post here your own bold pledge to yourself.




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8 comments:

billie said...

Peggy, I've made this "public' elsewhere but perhaps if I spread it around cyberspace enough I'll keep bumping into it and get it done. :)

Two things, really.

Writing: I have so many projects in my head and on my hard drive I have decided it's time to get them moving. I've queried the second one and right now various pages are out with 3 agents. I'm moving on to edit number 3 and get it queried. Basically, the bold thing is to get the work OUT THERE. I'm tired of waiting until one thing is finished, querying, waiting, etc. I'm zipping these things out the door this year. If it ends up being a querying frenzy, then so be it. It's past time.

Riding: I took a break from formal lessons for the past six months and have been working on my own. Parts of that have been wonderful, and one part seems to be not so wonderful. If I don't have a lesson, it's easier to get sidetracked. I found out yesterday that my dream dressage trainer has lowered her lesson fees and is now willing to travel to teach. The one reason I hadn't signed on with her was lack of a big trailer to haul the Big Bay. Now I don't have to wait. She can come here! It's time to stop thinking I have to get better before I work with the dream trainer. Instead, I will work with the dream trainer and ride boldly forward. :)

Thanks for offering the space for putting these things out there. You're absolutely right - it makes a BIG difference when you make it public and give it some weight by putting it "in print."

Happy Bold New Year!

Unknown said...

One: lose the weight. Last year I went on the Flat Belly Diet, which was terrific and I loved it and it worked. Then I started traveling about two months later, and decided to put it on hold -- I shouldn't have, I now realized, but one of the reasons I did was that the FBD practically requires that you cook a lot of your own food so it's easier to track and control calories and various nutritional amounts, and that was almost impossible while traveling long term. So this year, I'm determined to finish losing the weight I started losing last year. 40 lbs, in two years, is my goal.

Two, time to start working again. I've been living on my savings and inheritance. Time to figure out how to work and make money to live on wherever I am.

And three, get my living arrangements figured out. With a partner from England, either we're together and constantly trying to figure out visa issues, or we're apart and...well, we're apart. Something is going to have to change about that this year. We've got the process started, as his divorce should be through by the end of the first quarter of 2009 (UK divorce law is weird), and we're going to have to consider marriage a lot earlier than we normally would have. Sad to be in the situation of having to consider marrying to find out whether we should be together, but life is sometimes very weird. :)

Everything else goal-wise for the year is optional. :)

Anonymous said...

lol,so nice

Debra said...

Peggy,

I was popping over to wish you a very happy fresh start! I hope your holidays were wonderful. I will have to think about this and get back to you, as I am not huge on "resolutions", but I would like to accept your invitation. I absolutely agree that working together to support one another is a very good way to move closer to achieving a goal.

Happy, happy New Year! Happy fresh beginning!

Hugs,
Debbie

Peggy Payne said...

Thanks for your New Years greetings, Debbie. I wish an excellent year for you.

Here's to Billie's OUT THERE manuscripts and dream dressage trainer.

...And to K.B.'s combo of diet, earning, and getting the relationship sorted out. Work, love and a Flat Belly pretty well covers the important stuff.

Unknown said...

Just read an idea on a craft blog that I read regularly, CraftStylish. The idea is to keep an "I Did" list regularly updated, with all of the things you've done, alongside your more regular "Must Do" lists, so you can see what you've accomplished. It occurred to me that this works with more than just craft projects, and would be a great way to end journal entries and such as well. Celebrating what I've done by keeping such a list sounds like fun to me, and a lot less guilt-inducing and celebratory than the "Must Do" list!

Anonymous said...

Coming to your BLOG, I feel a good start!

Peggy Payne said...

I'm glad you're feeling a fresh new start, writer who speaks either Mandarin or Cantonese.

And K.B.--I love the I-Did list idea. I think I do it informally by bragging. Was just now crowing about painting the inside of my kitchen cabinets on New Years.