2015 is over! Hurrah for 2016!
I made some goals for last year, so it’s time to check in with accountability. First of all, in 2015 I wrote 523,169 words on manuscripts and blog posts. This year, I’m aiming for 600,000 words.
Now let’s check in on the resolutions I made last year, and whether or not I accomplished them:
1. “By the end of 2015, I want to either have completed, or actively begun work on, a YA vampire novel.” I have actively begun work on a vampire novel. The first draft of Biter is being released chapter by chapter for my Patreon patrons, but it will be available as a full novel once it’s written and edited. The only part of the resolution I didn’t keep is that it isn’t a YA, it’s an NA.
2. “I want to celebrate my return to running in 2015 by racing around the beautiful shores of Mackinac Island.” Nope. I used to run with D-Rock, but once she moved to Washington, I stopped completely because I wasn’t accountable to anyone. I’m disappointed in dropping the ball on this one. I really enjoy running, and eight miles isn’t that far to run. I don’t have any excuse here, like that year I injured my tendon and gave myself a pass.
3. “I’d like to get a tattoo that I drew.” I didn’t get a tattoo I drew. I designed a tattoo, with help from the artist. Doesn’t count, though, because I didn’t draw it.
4. “Legally change my name to Jenny Trout. Do you have any idea how liberating it’s going to be to go from eighteen letters to ten letters?” What an optimistic idiot I was. I did legally change my name. I pulled that one off (go me!) but my name still doesn’t fit on forms. Instead of eighteen letters, it’s now twenty-three. Still, I’m super pumped to be Jenny Gallifrey Joel Trout now.
So what are my goals for 2016?
1. Reading Challenge Last year was a bad year for me, reading wise. I was in a total funk, and not just one of those “I devoured this book, now nothing else compares” funks. I just had a hard time picking a book and sticking with it. This year, in an attempt to combat that, I’m doing this reading challenge.
2. Take Weekends Off Toward the end of 2015, I got serious burnout. Burnout spirals me into depression. Depression makes me a person I don’t like. And when I don’t like myself, the burnout gets even worse. I made an effort to take the month of December off. I didn’t exactly stick to it. But this year, I’m making myself a strictly Monday through Friday gal. Weekends won’t be for work, but for just hanging out and Me Time. Hopefully this prevents further burnout.
3. Write 600,000 Words This might seem like it’s in direct contradiction to the whole “Take time off, don’t get burned out” thing, but I think that my new schedule will actually make me more productive, so this is probably totally do-able.
4. Tag Things On This Blog The lack of tags infuriates some of you. I understand. I’m just not good at tagging. I’m going to make an effort to tag stuff now. I probably will not go through and retag all my old entries, as this blog was started in 2008 or something and I don’t have that kind of time to devote to it. But I’ll at least try.
Those are my goals for 2016. Nothing grandiose, but I’ve got to learn to stop sabotaging myself. Also, I’m going to knit and color more. Sometimes, without earning it.
This year is going to rock.
I think I’m going to steal 2 and 3 because 2 is very wise and 3 is awesome.
You are amazing. Over the past year, your blog has been the most inspiring and entertaining thing online. I hope your 2016 brings you all the happiness and success possible.
I think you’ve done really well actually. Some of those things were big things, like the name change and the tattoo (hey it’s permanent!) – even if they weren’t exactly like you said.
My husband and I have decided on mini goals as I’m struggling a lot with motivation in general as I look for work. Our first mini goal was no unhealthy food from Christmas until his birthday on Jan 10 and we’re well on track for that. After his birthday we might try again until the end of the month.
The next is to begin my hardcore exercise program again but I’m waiting to hear from my rheumatologist to see if I have an auto immune thing attacking my joints. If so I’m gonna do a Jenny and adjust it to something that keeps to the spirit of the thing while still honouring my commitment. 🙂
Kudos to you for recognizing the need for scheduled down time – this is something that took me so, so long to learn about myself. I struggle with recurring depression and once I was able to identify my major triggers (unmitigated ongoing high stress levels, hormonal changes), it made it so, SO much easier to cope with. I also have learned that I need professional support available before I am in crisis mode, so I finally committed to ongoing therapy and having an actual psychiatrist (instead of relying on my primary care doctor for refills, who didn’t feel comfortable prescribing medication changes).
It’s taken me 30 years to figure out the importance of self-care, and even now that I know it, it is very hard to practice routinely. Es
Hey, erm, would it be okay to share a tip for doing the tagging thing? I used to have the same problem, but don’t want to be That Guy who barges in and goes ‘DO THIS AND THIS AND ALLLL SHALL BE BETTERRR!’
If not, that’s totally cool. And I hope you have a good year 🙂
M
PS. That reminds me of a joke: what’s the difference between a year’s supply of tires, and a year’s supply of contraceptives? One’s a goodyear, and the other’s a bloody good year.
After reading this post, I’m committing myself to the same reading challenge! I can see it getting harder as the year goes on and I’m trapped with the genres I don’t read much/at all, but that’s part of the fun!
A book by a celebrity and a book by a comedian sound especially challenging!
Read one of Ellen Degeneres’ books, they are amazing! 🙂
Those are good goals. Especially the tagging one. 😉