I can’t tell you how excited I am for Angela Peart to be my guest. Like most of you, I was drawn to her gravatar on Twitter and Facebook. Have you ever seen anyone exude so much happiness within a single shot of their face?

Yet, I have learned there is much more to Angela Peart than simply meets the eye.

She was European born and raised in the country of Poland and now resides near Seattle, Washington while balancing her many responsibilities as a wife, mother and writer of Adult, YA and Children’s literature. She is a hopeless romantic, a self-appointed organic food ambassador and an environmentalist with a passion for watercolor paints.
 

A romantic organic environmentalist? Love that!
 

It can be no surprise that Angela prefers sunshine over rain, loves all types of music from Train to Chopin along with one of my personal favs, jazz musician Jesse Cook landing somewhere in-between. She has an exceptional flair for salsa dancing. Arriba! And on any given day she can be seen wearing her designer heels to the least of appropriate places.
 

Her son’s soccer practice? Okay, we won’t go there.
 

So with the everyday juggling act that Angela has to face, how is it that she is able to keep her focus and what has helped her to achieve her many goals?
 

Well with 2012 just around the corner, Angela is here not only to answer that question, but she is going to share with us her highly motivating formula for success!
 

So without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce to you, Angela Peart!
 
 
 
 

Thanks Karen and hello everyone!
 

As was mentioned, our lives can easily get in the way of our main objectives and achievements.
What I’d like to do is share with you what has helped me and many others to change that by
keeping us accountable while successfully achieving our goals.
 

What’s the best thing about it?

It really works…
 
 

ROW80 Straightened My Twisted Perspective on How To Achieve My Goals.
 
 

We all have goals. It must be in the human nature to realize what our desires are and to shape them into the quantifiable and time-targeted intentions simply called “a list of goals”. Some of us have a long list, while others might only have a few items on it.
 

Or maybe there is just this one goal that is strategically placed in front of other goals—we consider it most important for our immediate future. Perhaps we have a list of goals that are connected to one another, like stepping stones: the completion of some of them strictly depends on achieving the preceding ones.

 

Our goals are usually formed on a realization that our life is currently lacking something—a better job, a slimmer body, healthier eating habits, a fulfilling hobby, etc.

The list might include the goals that have formed simply because we have achieved this one specific goal in the past, but until now we haven’t attached any strings to it.
 
 

For example, let’s say Susie bought a gift certificate for Amy at a craft store. Amy, who has never been very crafty, went to that store and examined various items without really knowing what she should be looking for. Finally, some fabric caught Amy’s eye and she spent her gift certificate on the fabric along with some thread and needles (per the store clerk’s suggestion). Amy took all her purchases home, but she had no idea what to do with them. Susie brought Amy some quilting magazines to look through, and Amy decided that she loved the way the quilts look. So what happened next?
 

Amy had a goal!
 

Her goal was to sign up for a quilting class, which she did. But she needed a sewing machine. So her next goal was to save enough money for that purchase. This was Amy’s goal number one, and as you can see, it made it to her list because of the completion of her previous goal (taking the quilting class), which was also on that list because of another preceding goal—spending her gift certificate on something crafty.
 

This example shows us how we end up with some of our goals without even planning them ahead of time. Just like Amy in my example, we might end up with one goal creating the next and then the next and so on. Amazing how these things work.
 

 
A list of goals might be quite straightforward but the road to completion is often filled with many obstacles. Every now and then we throw our arms up in frustration and quit. Sometimes a goal slowly slips away from our focus and we conveniently “forget” about it. Other times we seriously try to achieve a goal because we know all too well that without completing it we might lose something we don’t want to give up. This is a “working under pressure” scenario that most of us know from experience.
 

I have set up all kinds of goals in the past—some of them I have accomplished, but some I have discarded for various reasons. I’m sure everyone has done their own share of both: great achievements and epic failures.
 

Then last summer I’ve heard for the first time about ROW80.
 

One of my WANA711 buddies Kerry Meacham was participating and posting updates on his blog. I got very interested in learning more and, after doing a bit of a research, I decided to join several of my other WANA711 friends who were signing up in October.
 

There is a bunch of us participating in the current ROW80 round, which ends on December 22nd.
 

I’m already planning to sign up for the next round, and my main reasons are explained below:
 

1. ROW80 is a simple way of structuring and working toward achieving our goals.

2. There is a certain amount of camaraderie and support among the participants.

3. By participating in ROW80 we naturally become a part of a fabulous, compassionate and inspiring writing group.

4. We put our goals (and a pledge to achieve them) on a display, which makes us accountable in the eyes of the other participants (and anyone who reads our updates). In my opinion, this is one of the greatest kinds of motivation.
 

Number 4 is my favorite part of ROW80 because if I am not held responsible for meeting some my goals, I might never achieve them!
 

Everyone who takes part in the ROW80 displays in their blog the official badge that looks like this.

There is also a hashtag of #ROW80 on Twitter where the participants not only post links to their updates, but simply socialize, exchange advices and words of encouragement.
 

Sometimes we set a goal that we truly believe we are capable of achieving but, in the process, we might learn otherwise. The reasons behind us not meeting that goal might be completely out of our hands.
 

Carrie Spencer’s post on trying to fulfill her dream to learn how to juggle is a great example of it. Carrie has discovered that she has a problem with depth perception—thus will not be able to ever master the art of juggling.
 

I also would like to share with you some of my ROW80 friends’ goals and methods of reporting their semi-weekly or weekly achievements or failures.
 
 
Check out Natalie Hartford’s list and her swanky calendar-based reporting. Quite impressive, isn’t it?
 

Gene Lempp is one of the ROW80 Round 4 sponsors. He only has listed three goals, but they are quite substantial. The first one is to participate in the NaNoWriMo by writing fifty thousand words and editing it. By the way, Gene was one of the winners of this year’s NaNo challenge. His other goal was to complete Kristen Lamb’s Blogging for Writers course, which he did. I highly recommend this workshop for every writer who wants to learn how to successfully build his or her online platform.
 

And last but not the least, the brain behind ROW80: the fabulous Kait Nolan! Make sure you visit her Blog and follow her on Twitter.
 
 
Here are a few of my favorite quotes on goals:

A goal without a plan is just a wish.
Antoine de Saint

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
Aristotle

Goals are dreams with deadlines.
Diana Scharf Hunt

You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.
Charles C. Noble

Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.
Fitzhugh Dodson

In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are.
Arnold H. Glasgow
 

May I encourage you all to keep setting your goals and to consider ROW80 to help you achieve them!
 

So thank you everyone and to Karen for having me here as her guest.

Angela
angelapeart.com 
 
 

No, thank you Angela!
 
 

After this encouraging post I think we’re all ready to join you over at ROW80!

I know I am!
 

So what do you think? Do you create lists of goals? And if so, how do you stay focused on achieving them? Do you participate in ROW80? If not, would this be something that could help you stay on task? I would love to hear your ideas and stories of success and/or failure.
 
 

If you enjoyed this post, I encourage you to follow by email for future posts.

Thank you for your many thoughts and kind comments everyone!
Karen
 
 

And a big thanks to all my new WANA friends and all others that may grace my presence by visiting this post. Take care and make it a great day!