Ordinarily I'd post my New Year's resolutions on January 1, but I've been busy and didn't have a clear picture on what I wanted to resolve. Anyway, here they are, some with comments.
1. Write and publish Murder by the Acre. Of course, you knew that. If you check the sidebar, you'll be able to track my progress as I edit old material and write new material. I lost about a third of the book when I decided to split one murderer off to create the plot for another book. So far, the new plot is going along well, and I'm going to be able to use a fair amount of what I had already written with some minor changes. I will need to write about 20,000 words of new material to finish the book and bring it to the length of Murder by Dewey Decimal.
I am on track to finish it by the end of March. In April, it will go to my proofreaders: ETC, Frenzied Feline, Jean, Crystal, and a couple of other people that I intend to rope into reading it. May will be for rewriting, corrections, formatting, and copy-editing. June will be proof copies and publishing on Lulu. The process has changed, and it's now more complicated to get the book to the online retailers, but I hope it will be at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., sometime in November. At least, that's the plan. We'll see how it goes.
Other writing sub-resolutions are:
I. Edit and publish Floozy & Other Stories. (My collection of humor pieces.)
II. Edit and publish Unending. (My almost complete collection of poems. I don't own the rights to some of my poems published by various magazines, but I own most of them.)
III. Finish Darkness, Oklahoma and get it off to an agent and/or publisher.
IV. Finish Dragons Gather and get it off to an agent and/or publisher.
V. Continue to publish and impove the monthly family newsletter.
VI. Continue to publish and improve 51313 Harbor Street.
VII. Finish the plays Figments and Queen of the Boardroom, and get them produced somewhere, and then sent off to a publisher.
If I get even half of these done this year, it will be a good year.
2. Lose weight. This has to be done. To that end, I purchased a recumbent bike Wednesday. I used it Thursday night, after my roomie put it together (thanks, ETC) and this morning. My legs feel ... terrible. Sigh. And I didn't do that much. I'm going to try to use the bike at least twice a day. I just realized that losing weight also deserves its own sub-resolutions. They are:
A. Ride my recumbent bike twice a day.
B. Eat more salads and low calorie meals.
C. Control portion size. Smaller, smaller, smaller.
D. Drink more water. Lots more.
E. Limit sweets of any sort. This will definitely help my diabetes.
F. Eat more veggies. Lots more.
G. Cook more and eat out less.
H. Get more sleep. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase weight gain as well as cause other health problems.
I. Understand that it will take at least a couple of years (or more) for me to lose this weight. It's not going to be easy to lose weight, but when I do, the rewards will be great.
J. Remember that I've not failed until I give up, and be kind to myself when I slip up.
Probably there will be others, but those will do for now.
3. Continue my debt reduction plan. I have an annoucement concerning that: I officially paid off another credit card today! I called, and my payment had processed and my balance is zero. I feel a great sense of accomplishment on that. Now I have only one card left to pay off, and I should -- God willing -- pay it off by September or October of this year. Of course, there's still the first and second mortgage on my house, but they are decreasing each month, and I plan to pay off the second mortgage in late 2009. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.
I owe a lot of this to Dave Ramsey. His books and website gave me the belief that I could actually get out debt. So far, so good.
4. To feed the spiritual side of me. Peace of mind and comfort and security in my beliefs have always been hard for me. I'm a worrier. I fret. I've spent a lifetime doing this. Time to change. To dance more. To laugh more. To pray more. To care more. To love more. To be more.
Well, these should mean I'll have a very busy year. I'm looking forward to it. Have a great day.
7 comments:
You paid off a credit card! Good for you! I'm proud of you, Tech. Just keep on keeping on!
Woohoo on that credit card! :)
You've got quite a list there. I was just reading something yesterday about resoluntions. I'm going to post about it on the Great Slim Down, I think. Look for it later.
You're an inspiration, Tech. You really are. :)
You're doing superbly well on your debt reduction plan!
Looking forward to MBTA -- keep up the good work.
Yay for you on the recumbent bike. Those are so much better than upright bikes for riding. You'll be thankful you got the recumbent model.
Your goals are doable -- you are so right about not failing unless you give up and the need to go easy on yourself when you slip up.
I have to agree with Jolene. You are an inspiration and someone I definitely look up to.
Congrats on the credit card!
I really like your resolutions. I don't make them, well...because I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. But, that may just be my lack of self confidence and belief that I can achieve them.
I admire your strength, your resolve and courage.
I don't make resolutions because I know me. I'm lazy. I may have grand plans but I lack some in the follow-through in some areas. I just accept that about myself now. Not really. I beat myself up about it but that doesn't seem to help much.
You go!
Thank you, Gloria! I appreciate the support.
Jolene, thanks! And where is the post of yours on GSD? :)
Jean, thanks for the support. I'm really looking forward to reading your Twilight.
Thank you, Michelle. And I probably won't achieve all my resolutions, but I think I will some of them. And that will be a victory.
Don't beat yourself up, Trixie. I think that's the secret to being a winner: to forgive myself for when I slip and to get back up after I do. Easier said than done, but possible.
I'm just taking a break for breakfast with the computer...
I did say "later." It's still later isn't it? Isn't next week also later? ;)
Once I get the prep work done for my parents' visit I'll get back to "it." :)
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