I want it all, and I want it now…the lyrics to a Queen song currently humming in my head. Get out already. Yes, I want it all. But I can’t have it all right now. Life doesn’t work that way. There needs to be some sort of order. Get your ducks in a row, it will all come eventually…if you work hard enough.

Hard work. People are afraid of working too hard in case they don’t get what they want. Then they get disappointed because they are in the same place today as they were a year ago.

Choices. We all have them. Your choices have led you to the place you are today. Remember that.

Having spent twenty years dreaming of being an author, it’s my fault that I don’t have more books out there. I chose to trash manuscripts instead of sending them out to editors or beta readers. I chose to hide my passion. I chose to do nothing about it.

In 2015, I made a different choice.

It’s the best one I could have made.

I finished my novel, I edited, I hired an editor, a book designer, got a couple of people to read it for their opinions. I self-published.

I stopped talking and started doing.

How about you? What choices are you making right now that will help or hinder the chance to achieve your wildest dreams?

Publishing my debut novel in May 2015, unlocked a door for me. Now it’s my choice whether I continue to walk through it or backtrack to a lifestyle I don’t particularly enjoy.

I’m choosing to walk through it. So for the past six months I have been a bore to my family and friends, and drafted four manuscripts; two novels, and two novellas. I also found two stand-alone novels in the bottom of a drawer whilst packing which I wrote years ago that I might be able to rework next year. That’s six books that can potentially hit the market over the next twelve months.

The choice is mine.

Where are you planning to be with your career/life/situation in 12 months time?

The choice is yours.

2016 is just around the corner. You’re probably already thinking about your goals, the fresh starts, the awesomeness of new beginnings and planning out a year of success.

Dreaming is easy. Planning is simple. Taking action is the hard part. Taking the right action is the hardest.

We all want something. I’m here to tell you that you can have anything you want, within reason.

What do you really want?

Consider the previous years. What goals have you set and achieved? Which ones have you regurgitated year after year?

What happened? You probably got excited the first two weeks of January and forgot all about them come March. Maybe they weren’t as important as you first thought. Or maybe you didn’t have a plan.

The first step is to differentiate between a goal and a dream.

A goal is an achievable objective. Eg. I want to publish 6 books by the end of 2016.

A dream is an objective somewhere in the future which may or may not happen. Eg. I want to be a New York Times Best Selling Author six weeks in a row.

As you can see, one is within the realms of your control; the other not so much, if at all.

The goal can be broken up in to smaller steps. Six books in a year is one book every two months.

Are these books going to be full length novels? Are they 25,000 word novellas? Are they a part of a series? Have you already written some of them? Do you just have the editing to go? What about beta readers? Cover design? Publishing platform? Cost? Marketing?

There are a lot of variables to consider. But if you’re serious about achieving your goals in 2016 whether they include writing and publishing a book, losing weight, running a marathon, travelling to five new destinations, or spending more quality time with family and friends, you will take time time to figure out an action plan to make them happen.

Once you have that action plan you will stick it on the wall, keep it in your purse, secure it with a magnet in the fridge, put it up on your cork-board at work, and make sure that each day you’re making an effort to achieve your goal.

I want it all, and I want it now mentality is a detrimental one. You need to be willing to work hard and to work smart for what you want everyday, if you don’t, whatever your goal is was never meant to be. You can have it all, but it will take time.

One small step each day. It won’t happen overnight, but no great success ever did.

Where do you want 2016 to take you?