Resolutions

So I'm not really big on resolutions for the new year. Personally, I think it's kind of silly. But hey, it's nice to have goals in life and this got me thinking: The reason so many resolutions fail are that they're either unreasonable or unrealistic. When we set ourselves goals, they're supposed to be kind of incremental... For instance, for a smoker to say "My resolution is to quit smoking!" for the new year, and the plan is to quit cold turkey so to speak, then they are most likely going to fail. Instead, for a multi-pack a day smoker, it should be a pack a day. Then a pack a week. A pack a month. Reduce the amount of cigarettes you smoke until you get to the point where you really aren't smoking anymore. Can everyone do that? I don't know, probably not though. But a carton-a-day smoker is more likely to quit the way I specified here than to just give it up in one go. Sure, some can, but it's usually the exception rather than the rule. Having a support group helps, like the AA group for drinkers.

So I've been setting some goals for my life, not necessarily new things... just things I want to get done. One goal we are actively working on is living a dream of some loved ones. My parent's are excited by the idea, and when we get it going we'll be picking them up to join us on a grand adventure. Another goal was to start my own blog, and work towards becoming self-sufficient. Kind of like a self-employed self-sufficient kind of me. I'm also planning to pick up ghost writing as a way to help with that, which is kind of a thankless job but something I can do. Erin's even on board with this, doing hand made crafts to help out. This is a step in that direction! I will eventually add adsense to this blog, but that's kind of in the future. Right now, I'm growing my reader base and hoping I really am good enough to do that.

I'm also working on a book. I know, I know, I've talked about doing this for ages. I even have a writer page on Facebook: I will not call it an author page, I'm not published anywhere that matters. When I finish up this book, I will self-pub via Amazon and see what I see. Who knows, I might even be good enough to get picked up by a publisher. Wouldn't that be fun? My plan is to start small. I'm thinking a hundred words per day. I know! That's such a minimal number. I know that when I do write, the odds are good I'm going to go well over that. I'm alright with this! But by setting a low number, I can tell myself "I just need to write a little bit today," and if I go over I go over. If I miss a day or two it's fine, as long as I remember to make it up. Seven hundred words a week, still a small number. But you know, I'm not planning to write a three hundred thousand word book or anything. I'm not David Weber, that guy is cooler than I'll ever dream of being on the sci-fi/fantasy scene, and he could probably out-write me on his worst day (and my best). Meh, I'm cool with that. I need to take the time to pick up an editor at some point, but it's early days yet. But, that's my goal! Thanks for reading, and I hope you lot have the best year yet!