Happy New Year, all. I know, I know. Late. As usual. The holiday season saw my daughter and me spending quite a bit of time with family. And I still worked a bit. Mostly, though, I benched goals in favor of warm pajamas and savory food.
Now, I’m back in the proverbial saddle. I’ve spent this week reflecting on 2022 and planning for 2023.
I don’t know about y’all, but I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions. Are they even effective? Or do they simply set us up to be disappointed when we don’t lose the weight or reach the goals or earn the salary? Who knows.
When I do set goals, I tend to reach high. Unrealistically at times, considering I’m quite short.
Last year I set nothing. Had no plans. Didn’t want to think about the year. I was burning out from school and work. In January, I caught Covid and self-quarantined in my room for nearly three weeks.
And thus I began writing.
I went on to complete the 140k word first draft of the first book in a planned trilogy. Only slowing pace slightly, I wrote 120k words of the second manuscript.
I read 24 books. That’s a considerable number for me. In 2021 I read 6 books.
I completed 2 marathons. I traveled to Death Valley, CA; Albany, NY; Baltimore, MD. Sierra and I went on our first cruise and visited Roatan, Puerto Maya, and Cozumel.
I completed my second degree from UCF: a BS in Computer Science.
The year wasn’t always peachy, though. I had a major mental break in July/early August. For over a week, a panic attack plagued me. I could barely breathe, and multiple times my heart skipped so many beats I was afraid it wouldn’t restart.
I began smoking to handle stress.
At times, I struggled with deep, life-threatening depression.
It was not always pretty. Or healthy.
I’m thankful to the people who supported me through these times. I’m still alive. I’m still fighting.
And it’s a new year.
I have made some plans and set some goals for this year. Many personal. Some career-oriented.
I want to read more. My goal this year is 25 books, and I’ve chosen to start with Christopher Paolini’s most recent release, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.
I’ve signed up for 4 marathons.
I want to finish the second and third manuscripts of this trilogy and begin developmental edits.
And I want to share my successes and failures with you. To be kind to myself when I don’t reach my goals. To problem-solve through challenges. To give myself breaks. To sometimes just be still and rest. And to forgive the mania.
Happy New Year, all.
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