So Christmas is over (we just had our Christmas dinner yesterday, thanks to a bout of the flu for Christmas itself,) and here we are in the new year, first day of 2014. Some people find New Year’s depressing, some exciting and invigorating, and some just plain don’t care. Whichever you are, hopefully there will be something in this post that interests you.

Resolutions

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? Do you love the chance to “start fresh” with a new year, love writing down your goals and aspirations for the year? Or do you find New Year’s Resolutions to be something of a joke, approached by so many with so much vigor and then broken by the third week in January? Some people intentionally avoid setting goals in January just to avoid the whole New Year’s Resolution mindset/curse.

Sticking to it

Whether you make resolutions, set goals, or make a business plan in January (or any other time of the year), what are some ways to make them “stick”? Here are some strategies:

Simplify Your New Year’s Resolution Process: Reflect, Select, Remove

What Are Your Goals Up To Lately?

Top 10 Strategies for Making Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Writing

And a few that are specific to goals about writing:

What is your 5 year writing plan?

Five Year Writing Plans

Not resolving

And for those who are anti-New Year’s Resolution:

Why You Shouldn’t Bother with Writing Resolutions this New Year

How Goals and Good Intentions Can Hold Us Back

Setting Weekly Writing Goals

What is your goal?

Here are some ideas for reading or writing related goals.

Reading

Have you ever made a resolution with regard to reading? Read more classics? Read a certain amount in a year? Here are some ideas:

Why Have a Yearly Reading Goal?

A New Year’s resolution you can’t afford to miss — read with your kids

Blogging

Here are some ideas for bloggers who want to take a step back from the day-to-day or week-to-week routine of blogging and look at the big picture

How to Write a Year’s Worth of Posts in 30 Days

Starting writing/writing a book

Do you have a book in you? Have you always wanted to write, but didn’t know how or when to start? Have you been saying every year that this will be the year you will write your book? Did you start a book but lost the thread and didn’t finish? Or you’ve been working on the same one for ten years? Here are some thoughts.

For the Resolute at New Year’s: Promises, Process, and Progress

The Foolproof Method to Writing Your First Novel This Year

How to Write a Book This Year

4 Ways to End Your Writing Year Right

(And don’t forget my blog post on finding time to write. I am going to add an addendum to it today.)