It’s not really until you take a step back and look at the past year that you get a true appreciation for how your life is going. And I have to say, my life is going pretty well. Not bragging or anything — just grateful. I may not be a best-selling author or a brilliant neurosurgeon or anything, but all in all I’m quite satisfied with where I’m at. And that’s really all that matters, isn’t it?
And now, the resolutions! In no particular order, this year I would like to:
- Write every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t have to be any good, but I definitely want to get back into the habit of daily writing. NaNoWriMo is a fantastic motivator, but I want to have that kind of motivation all the time. And I’m so tired of having all these amazing stories floating around in my head just waiting to be written down, but stuck eternally in limbo because I don’t have the mental discipline to sit down and actually write them. Currently I’m working on a few projects (including Cerulean Bound — banged out the first chapter yesterday!), and hopefully at least a few of them will actually get completed this year.
- Get down to 140 lbs. I won’t tell you where I’m at right now, but let’s just say it’s above where I should be. Not drastically so, but enough that my old pants don’t fit, which is both frustrating and inconvenient. I don’t have plans to become a bikini model or anything — I just want to fit in my pants, dammit! I’ve managed to drop about 12 lbs since I started counting calories back in September, so hopefully I can keep it up.
- Stop sweating the small stuff. I fully admit that I have some anger problems. Not in the sense that I randomly flip out at people — I just find little stuff irrationally irritating, and after silently fuming about it for a bit (or a while), I have to take a step back and be like, “Michelle, for the love of sandwiches calm down, it’s totally not a big deal.” So ideally I’d like to be able to go straight from “getting irritated” to “calming down”, and skip the “fuming about it” part entirely. Because, at the end of the day, all I really want is to …
- Be happy. Let’s be clear — I’m pretty darn happy already! I just want to continue being so. That means doing things I enjoy, spending time with people I enjoy, accomplishing the things I set out to accomplish, and generally feeling content with the life I’ve carved out for myself. Part of how I’m going to do that is every night I’m going to write down one thing I did that day that I’m proud of or that I enjoyed. And then, whenever I’m feeling down, I’ll flip open my little notebook and remind myself of all the reasons I have to be happy. And, hopefully, there’ll be a lot of them!
So those are my resolutions for 2016. What’s on your list?
Oh, and … HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Unrelated media of the day:
Michelle Proulx - Author 
I like your last resolution on the list – be happy. I’m going to adopt it for myself.
Happy New Year!
Glad to hear it! The world needs a little more happiness 😀
Love the resolutions. We do something similar. At dinner everyone has to say one thing that they did that was awesome that day.
I love that idea! I don’t really do family dinners, as I live with roommates who come and go at all hours of the day. So it’s the little notebook by the bed for me 😀
Excellent resolutions there, Michelle! I really just have to stop being as lazy as I am. Kinda glad it’s something that’s difficult to quantify because then I’d have a baseline and target. No. Bad attitude! I WISH laziness was quantifiable, then I could have a baseline and a target! There. That’s better.
I really need to finish my novel and get it out. I mentioned a while back that I have a family friend willing to model for my cover shot. We’ve actually discussed a time to do the shoot so that’s something. January 2016. Yes it’s that specific. Now I just need to be as specific about my 1st draft deadline, editing, etc. I should really put the word out for beta readers. Then there’s the short film I want to make…
Onwards…
I both love and hate setting deadlines. Love, because it’s great motivation to actually get things done. Hate, because when I inevitably miss my deadline, I feel all guilty and useless and then I have to set another deadline I’ll never meet either. Siiiiiiigh. That’s why I’m going for the much-less-specific “write every day” goal. I didn’t tell myself how much to write, or what to work on … as long as I’m writing SOMETHING, that’s good enough 😀
Also, your photo shoot sounds awesome. You should take behind-the-scenes photos and post them on your blog.
Yep. I’ve tried publicising self-imposed deadlines and then ignored them completely. Doesn’t seem to work for me. I think I’ll have to try what you’re doing and just write something every day. If I’ve got nothing to write I’ll work on my tax ideas… Yeah.
Behind the scenes photos, eh? Hmm… I like your thinking!
Write every day is a resolution of mine, too. I tried word count and time goals, but they never worked, so I hope this one does.
And happiness is always a wise resolution! 😀
Can’t go wrong with happiness 😀 I considered giving myself a word count, but I’m the same as you — it never works. I find I get the most done when I set aside time every day to just write. Which usually involves packing up my laptop and going to a cafe, ordering a big tea, writing, and leaving once my bladder starts protesting too much, lol.