Just A Note (and Drawing Winner Announced!)

First: Thank You and WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!

My next newsletter isn't ready yet but I wanted to announce the drawing winner of the Christmas Tour and Giveaway without making everyone wait to find out who won.

Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing! I loved hearing how others enjoy Christmas as much as I do.


The winner of a free copy of one of my books is: CARYL KANE

Congratulations, Caryl! You didn't leave your email, so please email me so we can coordinate getting your book to you.
Linore (at) LinoreBurkard (dot) com.

I'll have it in the next newsletter and hope to hear back from you, either by your seeing it here or in the newsletter.

Welcome to 2017

It's been 2017 for six days by the time you see this and it's already beginning to feel like old news.

I don't know about you, but I am energized at the start of a new year, and I write out my goals for the coming 12 months with high hopes and optimism. I take them before the Lord and ask Him to winnow out the time-wasters, the distractions, the unimportant. Then I write down the ones that won't go away, not only the ones that feel most urgent, but the ones that make me stretch, challenge my abilities and maybe even my faith.

Do You Write Your Goals?

According to Mike Hyatt, there are five important reasons why you should. He says writing them down forces us to crystallize what we want, clarifying vague longings and wishes into concrete goals that can be reached.  

Writing goals provides motivation, and once you begin to meet those goals, new opportunities open up. Finally, writing goals helps you overcome resistance and gives you legitimate cause to celebrate when you reach them.

Still Need Encouragement?

There are plenty of studies that show the efficacy of writing goals. Putting them on paper just seems to reinforce them, helping us move closer to achieving them.

But is it enough?

According to Dr. David Hamilton, writing them is good--but writing them, thinking about them, adding concrete action steps and then having a friend to answer to for your progress is the BEST way to achieve goals. People who wrote their goals down and took all the extra steps achieved more of their goals than people who merely wrote them down.  

Where Are You in the Continuum?

I'm really good, as I said above, at writing my goals. I also write down action steps, and concrete ways to work towards achieving them. But I have yet to get a friend involved at the level of keeping me accountable. Maybe I'll do that this year. What about you? What's your biggest goal for 2017? Have you written it down?