My Year in Review

Closing up the year that was and looking at new writing habits in the year to come.

I know that this year hasn’t been the best for anyone. I can’t even say that it’s been all that great for me, but I did have some great things happen to me though.

• I finished my master’s degree. 
• I got engaged.
• I took control of my diabetes.
• I made a promise to myself to get fit.
• I started getting good at boxing.
• I went out of my comfort zone.
• I stopped giving attention to people who didn’t try back.

I think the biggest thing I learned was my time is valuable and that my knowledge, which I have collected over years, is more powerful than I have ever realised. Through the pandemic I learned just how resilient I am.

I took a lot of time to heal my diabetes and I’m still healing it. I wish I could just get rid of it but I have found that it gets easier. I have some good days and I have some bad days, but I’m mostly getting through it and being productive with the things I do. This means nourishing my body with great food, but it’s also not being strict because it’ll become obsessive. It also means moving my body. I am setting up my non-negotiables that involve working with my PT once a week and going to two of her classes a week. I want to add more. I am going to add more but for now that is where it’s at.

This means that I might be staying up late to edit or sitting down for a juicy writerly chat with my bestie who inspires me to do more. Or it just means curling up with a book and reading the whole night away. It’s dropping the daily journaling and accepting that it’s something that I need to do when I really need it.

I’ve been doing some thinking about the next year and what I want to achieve and I was thinking about how I manage to break most of my promises to myself because I get busy or I get distracted so I thought that this year I want to do a few things to help myself. It also stems from reading a quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s novel Women Who Runs with the Wolves (which was shared on Instagram by someone I follow mind you)  and it went like this “art is not meant to be created in stolen moments”. Let that sit for a second.

Art is not meant to be created in stolen moment.

Oomph. That hits so hard. And I’ve realised that that’s what I’ve been trying to do with my writing. I’ve been trying to fit it in around the time that I have. In 2021 I plan to make it a priority. I want to be able to come out of it with multiple published books. I have the drafts there to prove it and if I can get my books traditionally published? Why the hell not. I am out of excuses and now that I have my motivation back, I’m ready to do this.

2020 was tumultuous and I am grateful to be done with my Master’s degree but I was frustrated that I had to work all through the pandemic, my retail job being essential I didn’t get the time off I wanted. But juggling studying during a pandemic and working while trying to manage my health is a big job. I learned that i need to make sure that I take care of me first.

I’m ready for 2021 because I know what I can do. And I know that you believe in yourself too, so let’s design a year that works for us. The pandemic is going away and it’s not easing up.

But I want to invite you to set some writing intentions for the year. Think about what you want to achieve and then feel into how that feels for you. These intentions about how about you want your writing to feel which will lead into how they will look.

For example: I want my writing to feel effortless, even on the days it’s hard, because I know that when I am loved up and enjoying the world I’m writing in, there are no real hard days, just challenges that help the story grow and challenges that help me grow as a writer.

Your writing intentions need to be your remind and your reason why when things are too much for you. These intentions will help you remember what you’re dogin and what you’re striving to do because they will help you launch into action.

Staying on task is not an easy feat when your’e a writer because we get distracted by the smallest of things and we procrastinate a lot.

I want to help keep you accountable. Let me know what your writing intentions are for the year and I help guide you through.