Where to Start? What Task to Accomplish?

I've been on a quest to upload and fix all the old photos passed down through my family, organize them and add them to my family tree on Ancestry.com. I've always liked keeping records and tracking down old stories, and right now this helps me get through the days. 

The thing is, once you start looking at the photos, you start to wonder about them--their characters, their hurts and loves, their talents....well, it is so like writing fiction. You can't stop at just the photo--you want the whole story.

I found a photo I've rarely seen that belonged to my dad. It's a photo of his army buddy and I only vaguely remember my dad mentioning him, or maybe my mom said something about him. (Mom was living with my Dad's folks in Tennessee while Dad was in basics in South Carolina.) 

I don't know what happened to this guy and I'm not even sure of his name. I remember Mom saying that Dad wanted to name me, and eventually my brother, Alan Lavell Warren, in honor of this guy, but I was a girl and my brother got Ricky Alan. (I'm not sure why Alan.) These questions never occurred to me when Mom and Dad were still here. Makes me want to write down some of my own things in case my boys ever wonder...there I go, on another tangent.

This is the photo of my Dad's army buddy, no name.

This is the photo from the Basics yearbook that my dad had whom I think is this guy because he's the only Lavell in the entire book. His name was Lavell B. Garmon. What do you think? Same guy?

I've also been tracking down my husband's ancestors and they're VERY interesting. These are the things which fuel my muse. I love the stories. What sort of things fuel your muse? My problem is I can easily go down rabbit trails and not stick to my original intent. I need blinders on. I'm now working on how to balance all of my objectives and accomplish all of my goals with these things.

Next will be setting my year's goals and looking at a 5-year-plan--just in case I last that long. How about you? How do you overcome your distractions and focus on your goals?

How do you decide which goals to pursue?

Above in my header I want to point out the blessing. My friend, Mary Lynn, makes blog headers for me and this one is special--she wrote this blessing for me. She is a talented lady and I am blessed just knowing her. I pray this blessing, too, for all the readers here.