I’m a big fan of making resolutions – not so much of one for following through. Knowing this about myself, I’ve tried to avoid making them in the past. Or at least to avoid putting so much pressure on myself when it comes to keeping them and knowing if I do make them, it’s just a little signal that it’s something I need to change about myself in the future.
Things that fall into this category include the typical ones, like “lose weight, quit smoking, write 5000 words a day, blog every week, etc.” They are mostly goals that would be completely attainable if I didn’t have to pay bills, take care of animals, deal with problems in everyday life, or if they didn’t conflict with my desire to avoid change.
But this year is different. This year, the thing these goals have in common are the theme, “Right now,” rather than “As soon as I feel like doing it.”
I’m a master procrastinator. I will put things off until the last possible minute and then scramble at the final minute to make a deadline or put everything else on hold so I can meet a ridiculous goal I’ve set for myself.
So what I want to really work on this year is not procrastinating as much. So far, I’m off to a good start. We took the tree down today, which is pretty impressive since I really like the tree. I’ve also successfully de-cluttered (for the most part) by utilizing clever little contraptions like shoe holders (which fit nicely on the back of my bathroom door to make it simple for me to see what I have). I’ve created a vision board (which was amazingly helpful in 2013), and I’ve gotten a month’s worth of blogs written.
I’ve also created chores charts for both me and my husband. We both need to get better about being offline and being more involved in daily living. We’re only a week into the year, but so far, it’s going well. Exercise is a critical part of well-being, so we started taking the three dogs out for 5-mile a day walks. This has been happening for several months and while we don’t get out every day, it’s often enough to make me feel like it’s a habit now.
Not only is it crucial for my well-being, writing is the way I make my living. Blogging is essential for selling books, freelance writing is critical to keeping my animals fed, and pitching ideas for articles is integral to living the way we do. However, it can be a bit exhausting writing a super-serious article for a pet publication complete with interviews, researched data, and making sure your every last word is perfect – then scheduling social media, then creating blog posts, then answering email, then working on a novel for another four hours, so I had to find a way to group the activities. For this month at least, I’ll be selecting one day a week that is strictly creating social media posts, one day a week that is strictly blogging, one day that is strictly my novel, and the others that are strictly freelance writing and pitching. It’s the only way I can avoid doing complete paradigm shifts for topics, which only succeeds in hurting my brain.
I’m not sure how it will work out, but it’s important that I stay on a schedule for these activities. When I’m writing, I’ll be writing – not writing and checking facebook or twitter. When I’m out walking, that’s what I’m doing. I only take my phone in case of emergency or the need for GPS tracking ability.
This year is about staying in the moment. It’s something I’ve never been good at – as an Aquarian writer, I sense I’m cosmically predisposed for failure in this area, but I’m going to do my best. Hope you’ll tag along and see how this journey works out.
