The January Revival

Ah January, time for renewal! This morning I’ve read three articles in the New York Times dealing with three areas where I’m always looking for renewal: time management, diet and exercise. They were motivational and they suggested ideas that would work!  Resolutions and time management, healthy eating, and getting to the gym, if you want to check them out for yourself.)

For me though, the issues seem to be different, in that I have that elusive treasure, time.  There are benefits to reaching a certain age and letting go of the 9 to 5 world, and benefits as well to having a spouse who took on the task of financial support and retired able to keep those commitments.  But without stress or money woes to motivate me, what makes me get up in the morning?

For the past year, I’ve struggled with that.  There were days that I slept until noon, because I didn’t need to be up before dawn to do anything.  A year.  A whole year just blowing in the breeze. Now here, January 11, 2016, not the first, I realize that if I don’t figure it out, I’ll wake up closer to dead than ever before (isn’t that every single morning?  The cause of death is, after all, life.) So I need to figure out what I want to leave behind and how I want to spend the time I have.  I am not ready, it seems to roll over and wait life out.

It’s easier to know what I don’t want to leave behind, and easier to address that, though most of it makes me want to run and do anything else. Getting rid of all the skeletons in my figurative closets. Going through my files and disposing of the work that I’ve grown beyond.  Throwing away broken toys from when my children (in their late 20s and early 30s now,) have left behind.  Even moving out of the huge family home to something more fun and manageable.

But honestly, that’s just stuff. What do I want to do next?  When I pose this question to my inner psyche, ask it, what is important to you?  I came up with a few answers. 

1. My family.   Maybe that goes without saying, having devoted the last 30+ years in that direction, but I really do love them and am delighted when I can spend time with them or help them out. So I’ll keep that.

2. My freedom.  That includes the ability to write, the ability to move around freely, the ability to say and do as I genuinely want.  Stays in the “keep” pile.

3. My curiosity.  A long time ago someone coined the term “life long learner.”  Truth be told I’m happiest when I’m learning, whether that be following links on the internet, or traveling.  I love classes.  I keep signing up for ones that are a bit of a hoop jump to get to, but I make it.  So I’ll officially recognize this and find more.

4. My health.  This sounds like one of those things I’m supposed to write down on lists like this, but when I can’t sleep because something hurts, or I can’t climb that next mountain because my knees ache, the other things that are important to me get pushed aside.  It takes so little effort to be healthy… half an hour a day moving and eating things that aren’t junk.  I don’t have to treat my body like the low man on the totem pole. And I can enjoy this process so long as I don’t get crazy.  Walk the dogs, not run marathons.  Just not my aspiration.

So that’s where my focus will be in 2016. Not specific resolutions, though I’d like to do those too, because it helps me satisfy the inner list crosser offer…and because it is good to have short-term goals to measure long-term success. That will be my next task.

Gratuitous Dog Photo

Resolved...

January is resolution time.  For writers, that means time to renew our commitment to our characters, our word count, or at least our butt in the chair time.  I'm  no different.  In fact, I made several resolutions, for the year, about writing.  One of them had to do with editing. One had to do with publishing. One even had to do with actually writing.  Here we are two thirds through January though, and the only one I am faithful to is the writing.  Sad to say, I write because I love to write. Not edit, not publish.  Unfortunately, I already have hard drives and baskets and folders full of "writing."  It's time to do something with it.

Challenges are helpful.  I am competitive, and I like winning, so I have accepted the challange from a writer friend to enter a non prize winning contest.  Why? The winner gets their work read on stage. Hmm.  Maybe being read is enough of an incentive to get me to polish up a few things.

Fear is also helpful.  I signed up for another workshop, and have to have stories or chapters reader ready at least two times in the next ten weeks.  That doesn't sound like much, but I've challenged myself to make it "new writing." That's right. no pulling a tried and true and already work-shopped story from the baskets. That's too easy. Those stories are old and the emotion that created them is long gone. I'm no longer attached to them, so when I read them cold, they don't elicit a need from me to fix them, while preserving the passion from which they were created.  Great for editing. Not so great for creating.  And I want the encouragement that comes from having someone read what I'm working on now, and want more.

What gets you to keep your resolutions?