2011 is over, and I for one, am relieved. 2012 may be the end of the world according to the Mayan Calendar, or it may not, but if it is, it will still be an improvement over 2011.
Normally I would post a new blog entry every day, but in the last few months of 2011, my PC had increasing numbers of fits and viruses, crashing, running slow, even with 3 separate anti-virus, anti-malware programs on my machine. In one of the most generous gestures I have ever seen, a friend of mine surprised me, and I mean really surprised me, with a brand new MacBookPro. In all honesty, it doesn’t feel yet like it is truly mine, as though he will either change his mind (he won’t) or I will wake up and find I dreamt it all, or something to that effect. It’s just surreal. The best thing about Mac is that they are far less prone to viruses. The other best thing (I can’t bring myself to say “the second best” thing because I love everything about this computer equally) is that the keyboard is so easy to type with. No more missed keys, I backspace almost never. It’s lightning fast on the internet, and has tons of storage left over even after transferring my massive iTunes library. I’m glad to be back, having been without either notebook computer for a few days while date was being transferred and then needing a few more days to get used to the new Mac. I am at least confident enough now that I can get back into the business of writing, just in time to kick off the New Year.
For 2012, I made a list of general goals, professional, personal, spiritual, mental, and physical. If you care to share yours here as well, please feel free to post them in the comments space after this posting. I’m curious to know what my readers feel inspired to do this year. Mine are as follows:
Professional goals:
Write 6000 words per day Monday through Friday
Write 3000 words per day Saturday and Sunday
Finish WIP’s:
A guide for loved ones of Rape Trauma Syndrome sufferers, publish as an e-book and make available as a downloadable PDF.
A series of short guides dealing with persons with certain psychological disorders, non-pharmaceutical coping strategies proven to improve quality of life, and coping strategies that might make life better for the caregiver or person living with the afflicted. Publish as e-books and as downloadable PDF’s.
A locked room mystery; then publish as an e-book.
Write the thriller based on two ideas that collided with a third while I was driving the other day. Publish as an e-book. (This one may take longer than a year. It is the largest undertaking, with the most characters, plot twists and subplots, but it is also the one I may enjoy most!)
Write the humorous romance novel that’s been in my head and in my notes for the last 3 months. Publish as an e-book.
10,000 followers on Twitter
Build and launch my author website
Mental Goals:
Increase my Spanish vocabulary
Read one classic book each month. My list includes:
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Paradise Lost by Milton
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
The French Revolution by Alexis De Tocqueville
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
I also have a Chaucer book that tempts me, but I would like to get some of the above titles off of my “to read” shelf. I have an actual bookshelf, four shelves high and five feet wide, filled mostly with books I have not yet read, though some favorites I can’t bear to part with, and some reference books.
The rest of my reading in 2012 will consist of works by my friends as well as my favorite authors, including what I call “brain candy books”. You can only be serious so much of the time before your head threatens to explode. Sometimes a good cozy mystery or paperback romance, anything that doesn’t require me to have a dictionary at hand (that rules out P.D. James) and can be read in an afternoon qualifies.
To not lose my mind while writing this year. Or if I do, to at least lose it in some way that makes me sound like a genius on paper.
Be more Zen, and just focus on the task in front of me, to do the thing that most needs doing in this moment, and not let my ADD mind bounce around like a kernel of corn in an air popper; to be less of a butterfly chaser and further develop my ability to focus and finish what I start.
Personal goals:
Prepare my household for a natural disaster, starting with a 72-hour emergency supply of food, water and fuel (I live in tornado country and live near the New Madrid fault line, where an earthquake would be devastating, though rare).
Plant a vegetable and flower garden.
Share the extra vegetables with my elderly family members on a fixed income, as well as with my relatives with small children. Anything leftover beyond that I will share with my local food bank.
Cooking: I want to try a new recipe every week, and cook more from scratch in general.
De-clutter my house.
Organize the garage and basement.
Botanical Illustration classes at the local community college
Visit a family member each week that I haven’t seen in a while
A road trip to visit my cousins whom are scattered across the U.S.
Take up nature and travel photography as a hobby
Travel as often as possible, and make it possible more often.
Spiritual Goals:
Meditate a little every day
Spend time with the teachers I find soothing, like Thich Naht Hanh, via books and podcasts
To live heartfully and practice awareness in every moment of each day
To let go of the past, those that hurt me and forgive those upon whom I would visit vengeance upon. Except on the page. It’s all fair game in my writing.
Physical goals:
Get outside more. It’s a hazard of my profession, but I sit too much these days.
Walk to the store when I only need a few things.
Ride my bike.
Hike a few miles of the Pacific Coast Trail (in San Diego)
Kayak or canoe during the summer
Be strong enough to garden (that will be my biggest physical challenge of 2012, to consistently garden).
That’s it for now. I have other small things here and there but you have the gist of it here, and it’s got to be boring to read someone else’s goals for the year, so I’ll stop now.
This week I’ll share with you the method behind my madness.
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