Q2 2025: Failing Forward and Resetting With Intention

It's the first week of April, which means for me, it's time to sit down and evaluate my personal growth as well as my goal-setting and productivity. Balancing writing and real life isn't always easy, and managing goals with chronic illness often means giving myself grace and self-compassion—especially when I'm struggling to meet writer goals in the face of creative burnout.

I haven't always had self-reflection without shame, but I have always had a growth mindset, and that's a major part of why I love setting quarterly goals. It's about progress over perfection, goal setting with intention, learning how to set realistic goals, and developing the emotional resilience to practice self-compassion in hard seasons. It's about redefining success, and choosing grace over guilt. Missed goals may be a fact of life, but they don't have to feel like the end of the world.

Which is good, because in this goal review from the first quarter of 2025, I'm giving several missed goals grace for the sake of both mental wellness AND productivity. Here's the scoreboard on my goals for the first quarter of 2025:

Honestly, three out of five goals felt like failure, and I debated not sharing this post at all. I think I could have let it slide by and most people wouldn't even have noticed...but I pride myself on having the courage and the openness to share my author life behind the scenes. I know I'm not the only one still learning to balance accountability with kindness—and I like to think that in sharing my end of quarter reflection, I can offer you some encouragement in how to bounce back after failure and reset your goals while giving yourself grace. Because in the end, growth and reflection are the real accomplishments anyway, even if they take longer than we expect.

In my house, 2025 began with a wave of illness that felt a little like germ warfare before it was over. We spent most of January battling the flu, which worked wonders for my housekeeping and decluttering goal but really put a damper on my editing goals for STILL FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM. In February, my daughter and I went hard after resetting and catching up on overdue medical appointments—but six appointments, three birthdays, and the mental pressure of falling behind on my writing goals wore me down, which meant I stayed behind. March rolled in with spring break and psychotic weather; between chronic illness flare-ups, caregiving and ministry responsibilities, and the March 2025 storm system that stretched all the way from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian border, my typical daily schedule got completely wrecked.

Let me tell you, that spring weather chaos felt like a metaphor for my mental state too, because I was struggling. By the end of March, I was writing through discouragement because I knew there wasn't enough time to complete my goals, but I was also actively working to give myself grace for missed goals because I may be a lot of things but I am certainly not a quitter. I leaned on my faith, kept up with my Bible reading plan, and promised myself a productive reset was on the way.

And yes, I did celebrate the wins, not only in the goals I did meet, but in the way those first three months felt despite falling behind. I spent time with friends. I laughed until my belly ached. I watered my plants, I grew my platforms, and I loved my people. But now, it's time to put that first quarter behind me and set my focus on my goals for the second quarter of 2025:

You might have noticed that some of those goals are directly recycled from the first quarter, while others are adapted to complete goals I didn't quite meet—and that's okay. The first takeaway from how to learn from failure is to accept that failure is a given. We can't all win all the time. It's just reality. But even when you take the L, you suck it up and you keep trying. You don't quit on yourself or the person you're hoping to become. You don't give up, even if reaching your goals feels like it'll take forever. 

Remember that success is progress, not perfection; you can acknowledge discouragement without surrendering to it. And it's totally okay to own missed goals while choosing to move forward with grit and grace.

So with that being said, I'm signing off to work on those Q2 goals! If you're setting goals for work, personal growth, or even just better self-reflection, I'd love to see them in the comments below. And I hope as you set and work toward achieving whatever your goals might be, you'll...

Q1 2025: Laying the Foundation for a New Year

Starting the new year with a head-splitting, body-roasting, snot-producing, constant-hacking virus was definitely not in my plans; I can't say I'm surprised, though.

It got both of my daughters first, with the oldest falling ill the day after Christmas and the youngest taking to her bed two days later. It was only fair that I have a turn, so I prepared my stock of medicines and snack/hydration options, sanitized and cleaned and sprayed - and waited. And waited. Thursday rolled around (one full week since my oldest daughter got it) and I still wasn't sick, so I started thinking, "Hey, this one missed me!"

Then it rolled over me like the germ version of what you'd get if the British SAS, the US Navy Seals, the Chinese Snow Leopard Commandos, and the Polish GROM had some sort of freakish combo baby that grew up to be even more of an expert at ambush tactics. I haven't felt that deathly ill since Covid literally almost killed me. (Seriously. Ever wonder what a sternal rub feels like? Awful. It feels awful.)

Today, I'm still hacking and sneezing. I'm terribly sore and remarkably tired, which is impressive considering how much I've slept. But I don't have a fever, I can string two thoughts together (I'll leave you to judge how coherently), and I'm so desperate to take a shower that I'm using it as a reward to get this blog post written.

So without further ado, an update to my quarterly goals from Q4 2024...

The holiday season was blessed but busy here at the House of Kennedy, and I fell slightly behind on my writing schedule. I thought after Christmas I'd buckle down and catch up - but then Christmas ended and I spent the next week playing nursemaid instead of novelist. With myself falling ill just as my kids rounded the corner, I've had to reevaluate my schedule a bit, adjust my expectations a little, and generally dig deep to give myself a little extra grace. That being said, here are my goals for first quarter of 2025:

Tomorrow, my youngest heads back to school, and I hope to buckle down and take advantage of new-year motivation. These are manageable, but they're still goals that'll take some planning on my part, and I'm honestly not sure I'll get them all checked by the end of the quarter. Still, life is about progress, not perfection - and moving toward my goals is progress even if I don't get them all accomplished as quickly as I'd like to.

If you're setting goals like me this quarter, remember to set goals that are possible within the timeframe. Don't be afraid to take those quarterly goals and break them down into monthly milestones or weekly targets. Even if the end goal is a little intimidating, have faith in your capabilities; create a plan, map out the steps, and then start taking them one at a time. Each step is closer, and those steps will add up if you keep moving and remember to...

Q4 2024: Setting Intentional Goals

This week was just as busy as the last few have been, but for different reasons. My oldest daughter spent a few nights with us early in the week, which was great because we had some time to catch up and chat a little, even if she is a beautiful little distraction. After that, the youngest daughter and I both came down with a bug that sidelined us for a couple of days; we even missed church on Wednesday night, but the rest did us both some good. We spent a little time laying around, healing and rehydrating, and by the time we were better it was Friday, which I had set aside for a shopping date with my spiritual mom.

I did get some writing time squeezed in, but first...

I've been thinking a lot this week about my goals as a writer, and some of my downtime was spent working on making those goals a little more concrete. So while I was stuck in bed, I examined my platform numbers, book sale stats, and current progress and trajectory, then turned that information into goals for the rest of the year.

Those of you who have been with me for a while might remember a few years ago, when I used to share my quarterly goals for growth, both in my writing life and my personal life. The problem with those goals (and the reason I eventually stopped posting them) was that I had a habit of expecting way too much from myself, so I'm keeping it simple this time around and limiting myself to five goals for the upcoming fourth quarter of the year.

If you'd like to see how my goals play out for this quarter, make sure you follow me on Instagram; I'll be checking off goals as they're accomplished, and will update and share the above image to my stories!

We're now thirty-one weeks away from the release of the second edition FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, and while the writing and editing are pretty much complete, I'm still waiting for feedback from one beta reader before sending this book to the last person who will see it before the files are totally finalized. There are a few kinks to work out with one of my distributors as well, and I hope to have that settled in time to set up an option to preorder the book; if it all works out the way I want it to, there will be a little discount for those who pick the book up before release day.

This was my third week in a row working on chapter 16 of STILL FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM, but I finally love how it's looking and I'm looking forward to finishing this chapter and digging into the next part of the story. Malachi Matthews is long overdue for some justice, and I'm excited to see Christine grow through the rest of this book as she finally comes face-to-face with the husband who abused her.

Six chapters to go, and then that's a wrap on Christine's story!

As I work toward finishing this chapter, this book, and this year, I would also love to hear from you. What goals or dreams are you working toward? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and until next week...