HAPPY NEW YEAR!

If you rang in the new year like partying was your hard-core job, I will at this point suggest you go find some hair of the dog (or whatever remedy you prefer) and then come back. If you've already done that, or if you wisely avoided the annual hangover, by all means proceed without caution....

This is an unusual January first. Why? Because if you look up into the night sky and expect to see a moon, you won’t.

This phase of the Moon is called the New Moon and in case you don’t understand moon phases, this is where the moon is dark, resetting the cycle. It moves into a waxing crescent, advancing to Full Moon, then begins waning, and goes dark again. It’s been nearly two decades since the last time a New Year started on a New Moon. Since the New Moon is a time to reset you, too, this is prime resolution time. More oomph in your resolve, so to speak.

My 3-Fold Writerly Resolution:

PUSH MYSELF

No one else will.

Admittedly, my agent does a good job of motivating me, but in the end, it’s my butt in the writer’s seat, “my-best-book-yet” to write, and if I don’t do it I’m going to be wickedly pissed off and, well, nobody wants me wickedly pissed off at them. Not even me.

1.)    ELIMINATE ALL EXCUSES and DISCONNECT ALL DISTRACTIONS

There’s a time and a place for fun, but work time is not “check facebook” time, it’s not “just one more game of Spider Solitare or Ruzzle” time. {Insert commanding megaphone voice here.} “Put down the iPhone, ma’am, and slowly back away.”

I'm human. I have human tendencies like everyone else. In order to be more focused on what I DO want to accomplish, both on the page and in my career overall, I have to be more disciplined. I have to accept required work habits may not be as flexible as I have lazily let them become.

2.)    NEVER STOP LEARNING/HONING MY CRAFT

AKA: Respect the Gift I’ve Been Given. 

(Being published was a dream come true. Please don’t wake me.)

Analyze the constructive criticism and feedback that I’ve been given and apply what I learn from this. Discover some new (not-time-intensive) internet marketing skills. Be better than before. Then be better than that. 

3.)    DARE AGGRESSIVELY ON EVERY PAGE.

Every page. Every day.