Keeping my New Year’s Resolution

Finish what you started. This was my New Year’s Resolution this year.  I made this image and set it as my wallpaper on my laptop, tablet and phone so I would have to look at it every time I logged in. Nothing fancy, no elaborate goals or hard to achieve targets. Just put one foot in front of the other and go.

I have a major problem with starting projects and abandoning them. I am easily distracted and prone to epic bouts of procrastination.  So this simple task was a challenge, to say the least.

I stuck to it though and this year I completed two tasks that I have been proud of:

I completed my high school education as an adult and;

I finished my debut novel.

Completing my education was important to me. I had to drop out after grade eleven for a variety or reasons, mainly to work. I worked my way through grooming school and have spent the last eight years as a Pet Groomer. I love working with animals and find grooming a rewarding career.  I finished my school for myself. I worked hard and finished my education as an Honour Roll student six months ahead of schedule.

My novel, Awakening, has been an epic work in progress. I wrote the first few chapters and put them on hold while I took every English and Creative Writing courses offered by the Ontario curriculum. As an adult, I can say I got a hell of a lot more out of them now than I did as a teenager. I figured that I was going to school anyways so I might as well use the experience as a huge refresher on grammar and writing techniques. I finished the remainder of Awakening consistently over the past six months. Now I am midway through the second pass of revisions before I send the draft over to my editor.