I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of resolution posts, like this one from Maggie Stiefvater, which is a good discussion of goals and goal setting.
2009 has been interesting. My writer life took some steps forward this year, what with Viable Paradise and making my baby steps as a published writer.
What about 2010? I expect 2010 will be the year of slow and steady. Since the beginning of November, I’ve been whittling my weight down, slowly and steadily. Lots of reasons to do this, but the biggest for me is my dad’s death from a stroke at 53 (the only complication we share is high cholesterol) and my mom’s type 2 diabetes. Nope, don’t need either of those life clippers. There’s the usual medical litany you hear. Slowly, steadily, I intend to make the right lifestyle choices. And I mean it, damn it. I’m in the zone.
I expect to write every day. Like watching what I eat. In drips and drops there will be books.
Will I be published? Will I have an agent? Will I? I don’t know. The psychological tight rope is goal three.
I’m noticing that artists put on their pants one leg at a time, like everyone else. I just dropped out of this article, and talked to my jewelry-making friend Kim who is having a little motivation trouble right now. I think the over-arching message is that I have to learn to stop stressing myself about my expectations, and remind myself that goals don’t entirely run the show. There’s replenishing the artistic, finding joy in it, and minimizing the stress in other parts of my life to make the artistic possible.
So. A slow and steady year. Not because I don’t have big goals and dreams. But because I want to realize them at a slow and steady pace.
Catherine
