2018 Round up and 3 words for 2019
I don’t want to talk about 2018.
But I’m going to try. 2018 was a very rough year in both my professional and personal worlds. The year started out mediocre and over the next eight and a half months only got worse. It started an upturn in September that has thankfully carried through the end of the year, but the weight of the first two thirds has been so heavy that as I look back on it, I now realize the toll it took on my health and how much of the last few months have been spent trying to put everything into a context that makes sense. This is still a work in process, but it feels as though the worst of it is over and the rest will sort itself in time.
Despite my best efforts, 2018 was hardly as productive as I would have liked. Some of that is attributable to the goings on in my life that made the year as rocky as it did. But it also speaks to a clear lack of discipline on my part and as I have taken a closer and harder look at how this year unfolded, I see many valuable lessons this year has tried to teach me. I am not going to go into detail on these matters. They are both private and personal.
Still, while I appreciate the lessons, I am not sorry or sad to see this year pass into history.
With that said, on to 2019.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the “Just 3 Words” method is something I learned from Chris Brogan via Veronica Giguere. Chris describes it better than I could on this blog post from 2014- https://bit.ly/2LINMJr, but the TL:DR of it is to essentially boil your goals/resolutions into themes and then distill those themes into 3 words that you will use to guide you for the duration. Without further delay…
Organize
I don’t think it’s fair to say I’m doing “too much”. But it is certainly fair to say I’ve done a poor job of keeping track of it all. Whether it’s writing projects in various stages (at this point I count half a dozen separate titles off the top of my head, NOT including random brainstorm ideas), work commitments, family/personal commitments, goals, and aspirations. I’m very good and spouting these things off and then losing track of them. The end of 2018 saw some improvements on this as I’ve added new tools to my arsenal to help keep me organized, but I’d like to see further development on this in 2019.
Plan
Over the past year and a half, I’ve lost more time than I care to admit jumping into something on a whim without taking the time to plan out the benchmarks or even visualize the final product. The 5 failed drafts of “Hunter” stand out as the most glaring example and that rides on my back like an albatross. It’s great to have all of these projects to work on and address, but without a proper plan or at least a framework I’ll do little more than spin my wheels.
Execute
All of the organization and planning in the world is useless if nothing gets done. Heinlein says that a writer must write, that a writer must finish what they are writing, and that a writer must put that project out to the market, and then must start the next project. As a framework, these rules fit for much more than just writing. It is easy to sit, talk, and spout about all the ideas and plans one has. But until those plans are executed, it’s just talk.
So, there they are. 3 words for 2019. I thank you for reading this post and, as always, I welcome your constructive comments. I invite you to check back here as I plan to keep you apprised of how things are going on these three words and about the goings on in my world as a whole. One of the plans I intend to execute this year is a weekly post on Sunday that re-caps the week, addresses any thoughts I’m having about it, and previews the week to come. Finally, if you’re interested in seeing more from me beyond just the weekly posting, I invite you to subscribe to my Patreon campaign over at https://www.patreon.com/pcharing. There you’ll find additional content including but not limited to access to never before seen short stories and novellas, excerpts from my works in process, advance delivery of my published work, exclusive access behind the scenes, and more.
