5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Genealogist Should Set

For those who missed it, here is a link to an article I wrote for MyHeritage on December 31st. Hope you enjoy it even though we are already 11 days into the New Year!

New Year's always seems like a good time to make resolutions for doing better in our personal or business lives, or for accomplishing goals in the year ahead. But how many resolutions should we make? How many are we going to realistically keep?

Enthusiasm for change runs high in January. We are full of renewed energy. It’s a new year with the opportunity for new beginnings, and it is easy to become caught up in the fervor. But February and March often bring different emotions and our enthusiasm for the work that lies ahead can wane or drop off completely.

Continue reading at 5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Genealogist Should Set

Remember, it's never too late!

2015 Goals & Dreams

2014 is over. It was a pretty good year other than my health and mobility issues. I have a lot of genealogy ideas, plans, hopes and dreams for 2015. As I mentioned in my previous blog post New Year's Genealogy Resolutions for 2014 - Did I Achieve Them? this year I'm focusing on one goal - to write more genealogy books. 

One of my Facebook friends mentioned that she doesn't like the word goals so she calls hers "Things I hope to accomplish" That's not quite strong enough for me (it's the "hope to" part I don't care for personally) but I thought I'd list a few things I'm going to try my darndest to accomplish this year. 

My One Main Goal for 2015

Write more genealogy books. Specifically I plan to finish my murder mystery novel set in Salt Lake City (it's almost done, I'm on my 20th edit!), finish my book on Genealogy Activities for Children, and finish up the half-dozen eBooks I have in the works sitting on the back burner. 

Things I'm Pretty Determined to Do in 2015

I am determined to learn how to design my own covers for my paperback books without using the online cover creators. I want more control over fonts, placement of images, etc

Things I Am Going to Work Very Hard to Complete But Realistically Might Not Get Done

I'd love to finish the last volumes of my Peer Family in North America series. Descendants have been asking for them for a few years now.

I want to find a program that will allow me to easily set up a website I bought years ago for my Lost Faces photo albums. They are currently on a section of my main website but I want them on their own site, where I can freely share them with other genealogists and descendants. I do not want to do that site manually as I have over 3,000 photos and it's overwhelming to begin. So far I've not found a program that will create what I want.

Things I Dream Will Magically Happen

I will wake up one morning and all my digital photos will be labelled, tagged and organized

I wish someone would redesign my website Olive Tree Genealogy and surprise me with it. It desperately needs a makeover as I created it in 1996 - some 19 years ago!! It needs a facelift badly.

Summary 

I'm pretty sure I won't get all the above items done. But isn't it fun to plan and set goals? What do you hope to accomplish in 2015?

Credits: Image by noppasinw on freedigitalphotos.net

New Year's Genealogy Resolutions for 2014

Yep, it's that time again! Last year I reviewed my 2012 genealogy goals and decided I needed to set less lofty standards for myself! So I ended up with one goal in 2013 - to complete unfinished projects.

I listed 4 projects I wanted to clear off my desk and my mind. Here they are along with my review of how I did:

2013 Genealogy Goals - How Did I Do?

Number one: I completed a genealogical mystery novel after two years of hard work. After 7 edits, I sent it to my beta readers and they returned their manuscripts this summer with suggestions for improvement. Based on comments I only need to rework the first two chapters and it's done! That's going to be number one on my list in 2013.



Unfortunately this did not happen. I could make all kinds of excuses - I've had a bout of ill health that has been my top priority since March 1st (and still is) but the bottom line is my final edit is not done

Number two will be the book I started a year ago on Children's Genealogy Games & Activities. It is so close to completion that I am ashamed of myself for not finishing it months ago.


I  worked on this throughout October and November but it's not ready for publication.

Number three is a Family Genealogy book I intended to give to my new sister-in-law at her wedding to my brother.  I hate to say how long it's been sitting in Shutterfly, almost ready to publish. And now her sister wants to purchase two copies of it, sight unseen. That should be motivation for me to complete it!



Success! Done and given to my sister-in-law PLUS a second one on her family genealogy

Number four is the next volume of my book on the Peer Family of North America. I have done all the research and need only to compile it into the various volumes then self-publish them.

Partial Success. The next two volumes are completed and are in the final editing stage. So I had some success but could not accomplish all my goals. With my various health issues and workload, it was just too much. That's difficult for a high-achiever like me to admit. I'm the student who was never happy with "just" an A. It had to be A+ or it felt like I had not tried my best. For the coming year I have decided I will have to be content with carrying on with the uncompleted 2013 genealogy goals. One step at a time. Hope that my health issues will lessen or be resolved, and plug away at one project at a time. I think basically I can sum my goal(s) up with this sentence:
DO NOT GET SIDE-TRACKED!
I plan to start in on one project and stick with it until it's completed. Easier said than done for someone like me! I tend so jump around from project to project. As one becomes tedious or begins to bore me, I work on another one for awhile. But I am convinced I have to change that for 2014.