March 2015

Another month over and time to check in on my goals for 2015…

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.

Nope I have failed miserably yet again.  I have days where I eat healthily then others where I comfort eat even though I know I will be annoyed with myself afterwards but I will get there.

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.

I have totally failed at this despite my Fitbit but I have been able to work out what days I am more active and which I need to make more of an effort on, I am hoping the weather will start improving so I can start walking the dogs further and maybe even do another walk vlog but with them this time.

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.

Yes this one I actually did (does happy dance) I think preparing for the A-Z challenge has also helped towards this as the posts have required me to write and research them in advance.

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.

I have done this most days but still missed the odd one, on a school report it would say must try harder.

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.

My evening routine is much better but am struggling on mornings where I am not putting make up on, however with the products I am currently using my skin is improving.

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.

I am really struggling to motivate myself in terms of retyping up the finished stories I have already done but I am getting there slowly.

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.

I bit the bullet and actually submitted the novel to a publisher, I don’t really expect to hear anything back but still it is a step forward.

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 am down to just 32 post threads left in my inbox and hope by next month I will be able to tick this one off.

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.

The A-Z challenge has actually helped with this and I have scheduled lots of my regular FB features like Coffee Cacophony in advance which has left lots of extra time for writing.

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.

I have started getting better at this and saying no rather than letting myself be overwhelmed, it is not easy and still feels quite hard but I am feeling better for it.

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.

I do have a few things in the pipeline and as soon as anything is confirmed I am sure you will all know on FB or Twitter and most likely join me via Instagram and the Vlogs

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.

This one I succeeded in!  I not only submitted my novel to a publisher but I also decided to not submit it to another based not on my actual work but that after researching the publisher I did not think they would be a good fit with me.  I take that as a huge step forward and I also submitted another Flash Fiction to Zest which I hope to hear back from soon 😀

I really do feel this month has been the best and most productive of the year so far and hopefully it is  turning point for me.