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Monday, December 31, 2012

Resolution 2013


I had a very open-ended resolution for 2012. Last year, I resolved simply to "Do Better." You see, 2011 was pretty brutal in my personal life and I knew that those problems would carry over. So I threw out all the lofty "lose weight get in shape" goals and simply committed to doing better. To not only survive, but move forward. My writing was sparse, but I did my best to up my game in what I did write, and my two 2012 releases pleased me a lot. The Bacchi and Silver/Steel are both books I'm proud of. And for the most part, I managed my health and diet pretty well, falling into the occasional abyss of cheesecake and Twizzlers.

Yeah, some bad stuff happened, but I handled it for the most part.

2013 is looking somewhat better than 2012. I'm ahead on my writing, have an agent, and my mother is having surgery this week for a problem that's been plaguing her for quite some time. Hopefully  her health will continue to rebound. My niece KJ has been accepted to a day program after being at home full time for 2 years. That gives me a five or six hour block of time every day that's truly my own.

This year's resolution is also open-ended. This year I want to work toward putting my house in order. Not necessarily my literal house (though that's on the list) but my virtual house. My finances, my career, my personal life. This year I want to move from temporary fixes to permanent solutions. Instead of scrambling to organize my receipts for the year, I'll log them as they come in. I can't stop the sun from roasting me in my office during the summer, so I've bought thermal shades. I'm tossing out the Medi-fast diet food, the miracle diet drops and am restocking the kitchen with healthy food.

So many of the problems that crop up in our lives are symptomatic of something else. I carried a feeling of uneasiness and depression for a long time, till I finally faced up to an overwhelming money situation. Once I addressed it and made arrangements to handle it, I felt a fresh lease on life. Better organization allows me to stay on top of administering meds for two sick people, social workers, dogs stuff and writing.

This is all part of getting my house in order. I want to throw out the quick fixes and get to the heart of the problem. If I'm unhappy, I'll search out the root of the problem rather than tossing a bandage (usually made of chocolate) over the wound. I expect this year's journey will involve some healing, some fence mending (not only in the dog yard) and more than a dash of humility. It won't all be easy, but then, if it was easy, it wouldn't be a problem, right?

So tell me, what are your hopes, expectations and goals for the upcoming year?

3 comments:

Dawn Montgomery said...

You're an inspiration, my friend. The truth is, I just don't know what my resolutions are. I've read so many the last twenty four hours or so hoping for inspiration. Yours is the first that triggered a response. Getting your house in order is a fantastic one!!! I think I'll borrow that one myself.

2012 was a brutal year and I'm in survival mode still, I think. You know, keep your head low, drive on, roll with the kicks...So I'm going to try and build per quarter goals. Still working on them.

You are awesome, lady. And I look forward to what you bring in 2013!

Dawn

Maggie Nash said...

I started to write how much of an inspiration you are and then saw that Dawn had also said it. It's a testament to you that we both had the same initial thought! You deserve to have a wonderful, successful, and less challenging 2013 and I wish all of that for you!

For me, I need to do a lot of that organising my house stuff too. Lots of financial things with a new consulting business...plus a lot of remaining baggage from moving cities and getting settled in a new place. But in my writing life, I'm going to work at consistency and writing regularly. My goals will be short term so I can tick the list and move to the next - it's great for my confidence to see a lot of tasks done. So that's my tip for 2013!

Maggie

Cynnara Tregarth said...

You rock, Belinda! Seriously, you've managed to do more in the time you've got than I do, and I have time to do things. It never seems we have enough time-- but you always eke out a bit more. This year, I resolve to do more for my health, more for my writing, and to make it count for me. I also resolve to speak up more on the way people treat me. If they can't like me for who I am and the way I look now-- they're not going to like me any better if I'm thinner.

But the writing-- I've done some spending of the moola and I've been prepping myself to use new tools to make life simpler. So that's my goal-- make my writing simpler. Make it so it's so easy you'd think a kid could do what we do. But make it so that my ADD doesn't overwhelm me and that I don't feel like a failure like I have the past few years. I'm better now than then, but I'm not where I wish I was. But I can't undo what's done-- so I need to find a new normal. GO us!