Second Check-In: 2016 Goals

Now that the year is half-gone (how did that happen, already?), and for the first time since we started sharing our goals and progress throughout the year, I may have to revise the goals I set at the start of this year.

This is mostly due to to life getting in the way. 2016 has been a crapshoot of death. This has done nothing to help the always-precarious balancing act that results from doing the things I love, seeing the people I love, and still being able to eat.

The last few months have been tough. Worse than usual. Apparently, I’m better at respecting other people’s limits than my own, and I still repeatedly fail at being kind to myself.

Theatre: I’d planned to audition for professional theatre, so the rest of my year’s plans hinged on that. That fell through due to a combination of burning out, chickening out, and dealing with the aforementioned death toll of this year. I can’t even do the summer show with the troupe I normally work with because my work schedule has become inexplicably less flexible.

So far this year, I have been in one show and hope to be in another this fall. For new goals, I want to audition twice more this year and participate again in the 24-hour playwriting festival in the fall.

Travel: we made it to Florida and had a lovely visit with my husband’s grandmother. We’re hoping to turn this into an annual thing. We’d prefer more frequently, but I just don’t have that much vacation time, and there are so many places I want to go!

My travel plans for the rest of the year are definite now – ReaderCon in July, then up to Canada (sadly, not Calgary) in September for the wedding of two of my husband’s university friends.

Home things: get some sort of protective sealant on our deck and get at least one room painted. May not seem like much, but getting things done – things that take time, and energy, and advanced planning – are incredibly difficult for me to manage around a full-time work schedule.

Sewing projects/lessons will begin in July. Maybe just one a month, but something. Which is more than has happened so far this year.

Social: I’ve been better about my personal blog, so that’s a yay. Continue this trend. Also, hanging out with awesome people. It’s harder to do outside of a rehearsal schedule.

Reading: read as much as I can of whatever I want. The end. I’ve really, really missed reading. And reading is something I need to be a better writer.

Writing: finish the revision of the damn novel. See if any of the local school systems will let me run a writing workshop under adult ed in the fall.

I need to be kind to myself and take what time I need, whether for writing, theatre, or any other aspect of my life. I want to do better about prioritizing those things that are most important to me – which is difficult when those same things have to take a backseat to the day job

But that balancing game is something we’re all struggling to figure out. I’ll let you know where the rest of this year takes me.

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