1/2/18- New Year's Resolutions

2017 was a pretty good year for me.  I released a book, traveled twice to Disneyland, wrote about awesome engineers for STEMedia, enjoyed my work some days, and spent blissful time with my friends and family.  Although the past 2 weeks have been a bit busy and emotionally draining (there were some good times and some not good times this Christmas), 2017 was a good year for me on a personal level. I know some bat shark stuff happened in the US this year, shark you Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, but for me, I enjoyed 2017.

I believe 2018 will also be a good year (for me), and I'm not setting New Year's resolutions.  That's right no resolutions.  I have some writing goals and some personal goals, but if they don't happen this year, I'll get them done in 2019.  I've seen too often my parent friends stress out and feel time poor with all that is on their and their child's plates.  I've talked with my chronically ill friends about how some days the only energy you have is to eat and watch TV.  So this year I've decided to not sweat about my goals. Because goals are nice to have but are not a need to have.  

What are these goals that are nice to have but not a need to have?  I'll tell you:

1) Write every week-- If for some reason I don't write for one of the weeks, no big deal, I can do it some other time. Since my income to pay for food, shelter, etc doesn't come from writing, I've got the flexibility of when I write.  It's nice to write, but it's not a need. Gasp!  I'm sure other writers are horrified at this idea, but I don't want writing to be a chore. I want to write because I want to do it.  Writing started to feel mandatory at the end of 2017, and I want writing to stay fun and continue to make me feel happy. 

2) Submit queries to agents and publishers-- If for some reason I don't query an agent for the whole year, there will be agents to query in 2019.  A list of agents to query seems to be a pretty steady fact in the writing business, and as much as I'd love an agent sooner rather than later, I know that it takes time.  And if part of the reason it takes time is because of me, then so be it.

3) Take a vacation-- I'm like 99.9999999999999999999% sure that will happen this year, but it might not be some fancy vacation at a nice resort on a tropical island.  It might just be in the next city over at a Holiday Inn Express/Best Western/Comfort Inn/etc.  I don't really care where it, as long as it is time off from work and somewhat relaxing.   

That's it.  Those are my goals.  They're pretty achievable.  I asked a friend if she had any New Year's Resolutions, and she had a pretty good answer: sleep more and eat more.  Those are also very achievable goals.  So that's what I'm going to encourage us all to do this year-- set the bar low because you'll feel great when you easily trip over your goals.  In seriousness, I want to encourage you to set goals or resolutions, or whatever you want to call them, that you know you actually achieve.  Goals that you won't sweat about. Even if it's just eating more. 

Happy New Year's and best wishes!