Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Happy 2019!

Crazy asparagus growing in my garden: January 2019
Happy New Year, Y’all!

Well, its ten days after the first, but you can say "Happy New Year" all throughout January, right?

If you’re anything like me, you are probably already a bit overwhelmed with the tasks of everyday life. Over the last few weeks I’ve been closing out my goals for 2018 and getting them solidified for 2019. Some of my goals for 2019 are repeats from previous years. If you watched my Facebook Live on December 30th over on the Rachel Pilcher Writing WorkshopsFacebook page or the replay on YouTube, you already know that I picked five goals for my writing year:
1.       Create workbooks for all of my online classes. (speaking of, my first workshop, Write Fearlessly in the New Year, is coming up on Saturday, January 19th. Join me!)
2.       Blog at least once a week (and…I’m working on that.)
3.       Do more than just business writing.
4.       Submit to my critique group every month.
5.       Finalize my screenplay.

None of this is unrealistic. I just have to work on it. I need to use those open times when I’d normally mindlessly flip through Facebook or Instagram and write. By analyzing how I use my time, I can certainly do all that I have planned. I think the most challenging goal will be #3-do more than just business writing. I do a lot of writing for my business. In teaching writing, you have to do writing. Sometimes this tricks my brain into thinking that I’ve done my writing for the day if I’ve spent two hours writing. Nope. I need to do creative writing, as well.

On Sunday I participated in an online live workshop called Tranquility du Jour Live with Kimberly Wilson. This is a free seasonal offering where she guides the participants through setting intentions for the season. I always have a takeaway from this, and this time around was no exception. I’ve been trying to set my word of intention for the year for the past couple of weeks. I kept bouncing back and forth between several words, but Sunday I finally settled on one: Focus. All of my issues that I have with writing, reading, or even completing some simple tasks can all be attributed to a lack of focus.

Focus. Something we all need more of in this multitasking world.

I like it.