Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Holy crap. It’s 2014. For the longest time, I didn’t think 2013 would ever end. I mean, I got married in 2013. The first part of the year was at a snail’s pace as I planned the wedding and all that stress fell into place.

Goals

The below goals will only be applicable on months that I am not employed. My year is so variable that this is all I can speak for at the moment.

Revise interWIRED and query – The big goal, really. I want to sacrifice this piece up to the traditional publishing world and see who will bite.
Write 6 days a week – I don’t want to set naive goals. I want to set goals that I can work to hit. At the end of the month, I want to average having written 6 out of 7 days of the week. I don’t have a wordcount goal. Some days will be edit heavy, others will be writing heavy. But I must write something for a creative piece 6 days a week.
Walk or Work Out 6 days a week – It’s winter when I’m writing this. But I can definitely walk or run on the treadmill no matter what the weather. I need to move more. As I was stuck at work in a cubicle and in a far away land (aka a somewhat dangerous neighbourhood that I didn’t want to venture out in), I let my health deteriorate. And I need to change this. I want to get back to my Ballet Barre studio and work out with those ladies–I loved it there and the music was great. I just got bogged down with stress big time and everything fell apart in the end of the 2013.In addition to this, I have to say, I am going to Hawaii in 7 weeks for my honeymoon. I am slightly motivated to distance myself from my heaviest weight ever in the downward direction on the scale.
Submit a short story a month – When I am not working, I feel that I can craft a short story a month in addition to my novel work. I will write it, edit it, have it critted, and send it out every month. I have the first few markets planned and a story drafted for January submission so I will continue to do this.
Minimize book and magazine purchases – While I hate the idea of this, I need to curb my spending. I have a to-be-read shelf that has well over 200 books, maybe 300 plus. Will I be able to eliminate this purchasing? Probably not; I’m a glutton. But I will try to limit this to only long-awaited books.

There may be more goals and different goals when I approach different milestones this year. Will I get a part-time job or a full-time job? Will we be starting a family this year? There are so many variables this year. This will be the first year that I have entered where I’m simply going in blind. I have some savings. I have no job. I have ideas and dreams. I have the support of my wife and my family. I have the potential to travel.

What I do know is that every day will be broken down into to-do lists and I will make sure to tackle an array of tasks, not over-focusing on one portion of the jobs to be done. I’m looking at 2014 as an opportunity for balance.

What are your goals?