Not a very successful year in many respects but next year will be better…
1) Eat healthier – no going on a diet but to watch portion size, try to make sure I get my five a day and to make healthier choices where I can. I also bought a smoothie maker in an attempt to help with this one.
Failed miserably infact probably weight more now than this time last year despite losing weight on and off
2) Exercise more – I want to try to exercise at least 4 times a week, starting with 10-15mins and building up to at least one hour session and the others at 30mins. Before I have tried for too much to soon ended up in pain then quit.
Again a fail, fear, injury and lack of determination let me fail last year but next year is a different matter
3) Write everyday – I intend to spend at least 30mins of every day writing, be it on here or in my journal. Most days will of course involve a lot longer and working on my books or other pieces but even on the busiest of days I need to make that small amount of time count.
I did write three or four times every week so while not quite there a step in the right direction
4) Daily WIP Progress – although I mention above actually writing every day by this I mean that on days I do not have time to sit and actually write on one of my WIPs then I will still find a way to contribute to it either by having a read through, printing a page off to edit or to make extra notes relating to whatever project I am working on. Writing is so much more than just getting a story on paper.
Again hit and miss, weeks where I did it then weeks where I did nothing
5) Improve my skin care regime – more of a personal one but time is not on the side of my skin and it does react to weather conditions so especially if I want to feel more comfortable filming vlogs I have to invest a few minutes each morning and bedtime.
Finally one I have been doing and along with meds from doctors seeing an improvement
6 ) Publish VATV – to be fair this would be done already had the computer not died but now it will be a case of hoping that my dropbox had updated properly but I know I do have 9 stories fully edited on hard copy that can be typed back up and the other stories will be saved in some form, I will set a new released date as soon as I have the new computer in my possession and set up.
Not quite there but very very soon
7) Publish Queen of Ages – another project which stalled, but as soon as Voices is out I intend to start another edit run on the first part of my trilogy and get stuck into to writing the second part which I also intend to be out before the end of the year. Had technical issues not meant the delay to Voices I would have gone for all three within the year.
Again delayed but next year for certain
8) Catch up on my emails – that should be catch up and keep up, as many of you have been aware I have made a good start on this one while trying to recover from flu but if you have not had a flood of extra likes on posts from last year it does not mean I have not read and enjoyed them but I did read some in my email inbox and others the like button just would not work on this silly touch screen tablet.
I did then I got behind again lol so this will feature once again
9) Use scheduling better – I normally prepare blog posts and a number of Facebook posts in advance then schedule them to go live at certain times, I want to work on being more consistent at this however I confess I am finding it hard to do on the tablet so that may have to wait for the computer as well.
Again this has been hit and miss and certain posts I did better at scheduling than others need to get a week in advance with everything other than vlog posts
10) Put myself first more – I have discussed this in part previously but there is more to it which I will go into at a later date more. So often we are too worried to say no, too afraid of hurting others feelings but the fact is you can only be treated like a doormat if you lie down for people to walk over.
Yes finally one I have achieved lol, though learning to be more selfish is not necessarily something that would normally be cause for celebration
11) Get out and about more – finances dictate that I cannot go off on crazy adventures every weekend but I want to make sure I fit in 4 away day and see at least two shows at the theatre this year.
Wonderful trip to London but we didn’t do much more this year, am determined to do a little more next year
12) Have faith in my writing – I am determined as well as the larger projects to create one extra short story a month and to submit it to market.
Still working on this one!
Paula Acton 