Some people hate all the hype surrounding New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. And many people will tell you making resolutions for 2014 is a waste of time. I’m not one of those people.

New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday. And New Year’s Day is a close second. I call them a night of hope and a day of dreams. I love spending New Year’s Eve partying with my pals, reflecting on the year we’ve had. And I kick off each New Year by having brunch (my favorite meal) and putting the finishing touches on my list of goals for the year ahead.

I understand why many people are reluctant to set goals and make resolutions at the start of the year. You’ve resolved to write a book before, but the words just wouldn’t come. You tried to exercise daily last year but failed.

But this year I invite you to view resolutions in a new way.

I’m a lady of letters so I turn to the dictionary for help with this. Yes, to resolve does me to make a firm decision about something, but it also means to find an answer or solution to something, to make something clear and understandable, and it can mean to separate something into constituent parts.

Let’s make use of this definition as we set our sights on the year ahead. Instead of simply resolving to write a book or lose weight, break down your goals into steps and helpful habits. Consider what you can do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to make your dreams come true.

This year I want to increase the readership for See Jane Write Magazine and my personal blog, WriteousBabe.com. I want to grow See Jane Write Birmingham and I want to promote myself more as a freelance writer and public speaker through my new website Javacia.com. Just staring at those goals can be intimidating, but breaking them down into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks makes them much more manageable.

Here are my writing resolutions for 2014:

• Engage on social media (specifically Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+) daily.
• Comment on someone else’s blog daily.
• Update WriteousBabe.com at least three days a week.
• Update SeeJaneWriteMagazine.com weekly.
• Update SeeJaneWriteBham.com weekly (with announcements about events and magazine content).
• Share a blog post on BlogHer weekly.
• Host a See Jane Write Birmingham event each month.
• Pitch a story idea to one of my favorite publications every month.
• Guest blog or be featured on a blog at least once a month.
• In December 2014 let go of any projects that aren’t working.

WHAT HELPFUL HABITS WILL YOU ADOPT THIS YEAR?

* This post was originally published at SeeJaneWriteMgazine.com on Dec. 30, 2013.