New Year, pretty much same me

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. I think they set up an unrealistic expectation that we’re going to become completly different people and somehow be able to make different health and productivity decisions just because we’ve just cracked open a new planner.

This isn’t to say that I don’t believe we can make changes in our lives. I think we’re all imperfect works in progress and we can choose something different for ourselves every day. I’m just saying we try to do too much too fast and at an arbitrary time. You can start something new any day. For instance, I’m already 25 days into a Dulingo streak.

What I do believe in is setting SMART goals at the start of the year. Just in case you don’t remember what that acronym stands for, it’s a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevent, and Time Bound.

I do have some slightly ambitious writing goals this year. But I should let you know off the bat that there will be no major launches. At some point Woven will be going wide, so you don’t have to rely on Amazon to get it. But other than that, you will see no novel launches from me in 2025.

I did launch four books in 2024, after all.

My writing goals for 2025 are pretty simple.

– I want to officially join SFWA.

– I want to join another local writing guild.

– I want to write the rough draft and second draft of Aurora, the final Station 86 book.

– I want to write the third and fourth drafts of a secret novel that I’m hoping to tell you more about later.

– Finally, I do want to launch Woven on all platforms.

That sounds like a lot, and maybe it is. But I think I can reasonably do all of those things. And being reasonable with my goals this year was very important.

Many of you, like me, have a word of the year. My word for 2025 is Heal. I decided on this word in early November. I realized that I’ve been putting off dealing with some heavy emotional stuff. I’m also suffering from burnout, and not taking care of my health. I needed to dedicate some time, yes a whole year, to healing myself first.

Then, on December 8th, my husband had a stroke. I don’t just mean a little stroke. I mean a brain bleed stroke. And he’s still in the hospital.

I’m sharing this for two reasons. One, if you see less of me around you know why. I’m not planning on taking any time off, but you never know. And two, to remind you of what I said in the beginning.

January first is a nice day to make changes. But so are the other 364 days of the year. Just because everyone else is making these grand plans right now doesn’t mean you have to if now isn’t the time for that shit.

You can decide next week that you want to start working out and just do it. You can decide in April that you want to start drawing and just do it. You can decide today, right now, that you want to start writing a novel, and just do it.

Or you can decide that what you’re going to do is just your best. And you know what? That’s valid too. Just do that.

However, if you’re stuck on this and you want to make some sort of positive change, may I suggest drinking more water? You’re probably dehydrated.

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