What’s In A Year
We break down time in many ways; days, weeks, months, hours minutes, seconds. We lump by seasons, quarters and halves. There are school, fiscal and calendar years. My ‘next’ year begins on my birthday, which is different from almost everyone I know. So why is it we are expected to announce our yearly plans on January 1?
In my hemisphere winter isn’t a great time to resolve to bike, or swim more (unless you have access to a gym and even then, maybe not.) The days are about as short as they get so quality outside time is sparse. There is the post holiday bonanza of new gadgets to play with to disrupt your plans, but still, we engage in this annual ritual of making our ‘new years resolutions.’
But what if your goals are the same as before the new year started? Do you resolve to just stay the course? (Boring.) Skip making them them? (Lame.) Or reiterate them as if they were new? (Sneaky). If you’re me, you end up a lame, boring sneak.
The new year has not brought a new set of goals for me. I was already trying to watch my weight, keep my cholesterol down. I been going to the same personal training for six years now. We’ve had a sound financial plan for a few years and we’re not making changes. And oh yeah, I still want to make the NY Times best seller list. Nothing new there.
I can, however, share a few things about what to expect in 2017. Two major things are Child of Night and Day – Book 4 of Champion of the Gods will be released on April 11. (Here’s a look at the cover). The other is Book 5 will be finished and submitted to the publisher. After that, my writing world is wide open.
At the tail end of 2016, I outsourced some of my marketing work so I can write more. That’s a big deal, but write more began in 2016. I’d also like engage more with readers, but since that’s part of the marketing plan that I began last year, that’s not new for 2017 either.
One thing I should do, but haven’t made plans for yet (or even tried much), is take another writing course. Despite recognizing I could always improve, I’ve not made that effort in a few years. There, I have one; in 2017 I’ll take a new writing course…. If I can find one that fits my schedule…. And looks interesting…. Oh and it needs to be affordable. But I’m really going to try to do it. Hmm. Try isn’t the same as a resolution, is it?
Maybe the best course is to let things progress and see what happens. What is clear now, might cloud up as the year goes on. And what is murky today, might be less so when the days are longer. Things may change and I’ll want to shift gears. Or double down. Or scrape something entirely. At that point I’ll be ready to make my resolutions.
Good thing there are so many different ways to mark time.
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