After school ended in June, I set three summer goals.  Every summer before I had written a long list of items to accomplish over the summer.  Every summer I failed to complete the list.  Why does it seem like there is so much time at the beginning of the summer, but by the time late August rolls in, it feels like the summer flys by like a rocket in the sky?  So, with my past experience in mind, I decided to set what I thought were three worthwhile, yet achievable goals.  Summer Goals

I didn’t totally fail on the Summer Healthier Eating Goal, but I didn’t post the recipes I found and I didn’t write posts about my progress either.  I failed to use My Fitness Pal on a regular basis or try two new recipes a week.  I did incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet using recipes that I’ve made in the past.  Looking back, I think I should have simplified my goal by posting my progress based on My Fitness Pal and taking photos of my healthy choices.  I think that once I started falling behind on trying and posting new recipes, I became overwhelmed and just gave up.  Next time, I’ll keep it simple and I think I’ll have a better chance of being successful.

My Summer Exercise Goal was much more realistic;  I had done pretty much the same thing the summer before.  Last summer, however, I was more successful in working out twice a day.  I did workout most days, even on vacation, but I failed to blog about my progress and experiences.  This leads me to my biggest failure – SMART Summer Writing Goal.

I really wanted to write/blog regularly!  I joined Teachers Write! and started off strong with two posts in two days!  Finding the Beauty and Tuesday Quick Write were fun to write, although they took me a long time to finish and post.  By the time I posted, two hours had gone by for each one.  I’m one of those writers that can take a long time to get started, but usually once I do, I’m in the flow. This year I posted my pieces to the group for comments. I received encouragement, praise and support!  I was thrilled!  I learned that it’s important to share your writing because it feels so good to hear that other people like your stories.

So, why didn’t I continue to post regularly?  One reason was that although I enjoy writing, I prefer to write non-fiction as opposed to fiction.  Many of the prompts were geared to writers who had fictional stories they were working on and I just don’t have any ideas for the plot, conflict, characters, and theme that a story requires. Another reason I failed was that I committed to posting 4-7 days a week. For someone who hadn’t blogged regularly, I realize now that it was unrealistic to post almost every day. I should have started off slowly committing to one or two posts a week and then, gradually adding more each week as I got more comfortable with it.

Overall, I’m glad I set the goals I did because even though I didn’t achieve them, I learned from the experience.  That’s the most important thing anyway.  I learned to have high expectations for myself, but also give myself a break when things don’t work out the way I had planned.  Also, I learned to start out slowly and then ramp up as I get accustomed to a task.  I’m looking forward to setting some more goals this fall, keeping in mind what I’ve learned this summer.

Thinking, talking and writing about how and why things you’ve done worked or didn’t work is called reflection.  Reflection is an important part of our Writing Workshop. More to come on reflection later!