Thursday, January 12, 2017

2017 Goals


I realize I’m a little late to the party with this, but eh, I don’t care. I’m here now. Where’s the cake? 

This is the point in the game where I’m expected to reflect on the goals that I set and accomplished (or failed to accomplish) in 2016. But my brain doesn’t want to do that, so you can just reflect on them all by your onesies, if you feel so inclined. They can be found here and here

This is also the point in the game where I’m expected to make more goals for myself, or rather, recycle old goals from last year, like regifting an ugly sweater. I can get a little more onboard with this one, but to be perfectly honest, I’m kind of over goals and resolutions. 


I’m a little over them because I forget years are short, and I make big plans. Then I blink and the new year has come and I’ve accomplished many things, but not many of the things I actually set out to accomplish. So even though I’ve succeeded, I don’t feel like I can celebrate. After all, my successes weren’t the successes I had planned. Or even if they were, they don’t feel as exciting as I had thought they would. Things rarely feel like I expect them to. Maybe instead of being over goals, I’m just over expectations—my own and other people’s. I’m not over trying, I’m just over trying to fit a wrong-shaped mold. 

I’m not going to tell you how many novels and secret projects I plan to write/edit this year, because at this point, I don’t know. I don’t know how much time I’ll have on my hands or how many victories I’ll win over my fatigue and my depression and my anxiety in this 2017 space. I’m not going to tell you about my deadlines, even though I’ve set more than I could ever hope to meet. 

It’s not that I’m not excited about what I might accomplish in 2017, it’s just that I’m scared to be excited. Getting my hopes up feels like the best way to get let down. 

I want to beta read more books. I don’t know if I will. 

I want to edit all the things. I don’t know how much I’ll manage. 

I’m working on finishing DRACONIAN. It feels like the work will never end. 

I want to finish editing BMT. So far I’ve gotten off to an encouraging start this year. I hadn’t realized just how much I miss the second draft stage, how much I love it best of all because it involves so much heavy lifting, so much moving and shaking, so much intricate thinking. 

I want to edit a secret project for this blog. A secret novella project that you are absolutely, under no circumstances, allowed to know about yet. Because it’s a secret. But who knows, maybe this novella that I wrote and hope to edit will accidentally turn into a trilogy and I will have no secret project to share with you by the end of the year (but then you won’t be disappointed about it, because it was a secret, so you didn’t know to expect anything—aren’t I clever?). 

I want to be more consistent with answering comments and commenting on blogs, but let’s face it, I have social anxiety and limited time, which makes prioritizing conversation of any sort not just difficult but tiring. I still want to try, but as always, I’m not the type of person who can afford to have a consistent priority like that, as much as I have sporadically tried (and failed) to make it so. 

I want to do more things that bring me joy and fewer things that drain my energy. 

I want to reread more of the books I love, because they’re like comfort food, except they won’t make me fat. 

I want to buy more books and drink more coffee. (Disregard the screaming. My wallet was simply having a nightmare.) 

I plan to read a little less (I know, I know, clearly something is wrong with me), watch a little less Netflix (a resolution that will go into effect only after I’ve watched A Series of Unfortunate Events, thank you very much), spend less time on social media, spend more time writing and editing, spend more time journaling, make more money, blah, blah, blah. 

Sorry, I was talking, but then I got bored.

In essence, I don’t know what will happen this year. I want so much—I always want to do so much, and I always forget that years are small and I am one person who needs sleep and gets burnt out and who fails sometimes. 

I may end up starting a full-time job, which I am excited but nervous about. (Oh, and see, my wallet calmed down and went back to sleep. Look at its happy lil’ face. I wonder what it’s dreaming about.) 

I may end up going insane. It could happen. 

I may end up drinking too much Starbucks and dying. 

I may end up making 2017 the best I can. 

We’ll see. 


What about you, my little coffee beans? What are some of your plans for 2017?

9 comments:

  1. I'm sorry that by the end of the year you don't feel like you can celebrate. One of the reasons I've never done new year resolutions, is because I know that I'm just going to let myself down. And, honestly, I don't need help to do that. :P

    Here's something you could do at the end of the year if you want to. You could do a post about the things you did accomplish that year. Kind of what I did in my 2017 Goals post. I didn't have any goals last year, but I had some things that I achieved/accomplished that I figured I'd share.

    That's just a thought I had, and I figured it couldn't hurt to share it. I hope this year is better for you. :)

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  2. I hope you get to accomplish your goals! <3 YOU CAN DO THIS, LIZ!

    Personally, I have one resolution: Start Bullet Journalling. This is an easier way for me to accomplish my goals. It seems quite decent so far, but I get less motivated during school days, ya know? :((

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  3. Yeah... Yearly goals are a struggle for me, too. I've thought about a few things I'd like to work on, at least to a minor extent. It's still difficult for me to work out entirely what I want just yet. Still. We shall have the years we have! Right?

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  4. I love your goals!! And I toootally relate to making epic goals and then doing none of them but still accomplishing lots of other things...so it's a quandary because I get to the end of the year and go "WHAT DID I DO" but it was actually a lot. Ah, life. So fun. :P
    I also am always trying to read less because I end up stressing out over reading a lot when I should just enjoy what I do and can read!!
    Buying more books is always a goal I like.😍😍 I just...need...to accidentally rip over a gold nugget or inherit a lot of money from a rich relative I never knew about. #goals
    I hope you have a good 2017 and get to accomplish things and feel good about yourself and that anxiety/fatigue/depression will allllll give you a break at times (because goodness knows I know what fighting with them are like). *gives you cake*

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  5. You probably achieve more in a year than you realise - just because you don't hit the goals you wrote down, doesn't mean you haven't done anything. I find one of the best things you can do is help others achieve their goals - or just tag along with them.

    For example my boyfriend has "shoot a gun" on his to do list for this year. Thats why yesterday I found myself with him at a shooting range - and yep - there I was shooting a gun right along side him. New experiences can happen at any time, in any place!

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  6. Totally agree with the difficult goals thing. I feel like if I don't meet my goals then I get really sad and stuff so I don't really make many goals on a regular basis. I made a few goals for my gap year and I made like 95% of those (except the 5% of goals that I changed so no regrets). So I hope you accomplish the goals you've made and you have a great 2017 :D

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  7. I kinda feel the same except that I feel like a year is so long, how can I be expected to know what's going to happen? I mean, I'm not even sure what I'm eating for dinner tonight, much less the amount of writing I'm going to get done within the next 350 days. So normally, I don't set goals or resolutions either--but I did this year, because they're well within reasonable reach (provided I don't get hit by a car or move to Antarctica) and I felt like I needed to set those goals to make sure I actually got moving on them.

    But anyways, all that to say, I feel you. Goals can be difficult to set, especially if you're not sure you can reach them, because not reaching a goal you set for yourself is really disheartening.
    So here's to us both getting done some writing stuff and reading stuff and real life stuff and feeling proud of it before 2017's end!


    Alexa
    thessalexa.blogspot.com
    verbosityreviews.com

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  8. Lol the wallet. XD Loose goals aren't a bad thing. I've set looser goals in hopes to meet them and not feel very pressured if I don't. But I like having them because they motivate me throughout the year.

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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  9. I hope you can accomplish all your goals! AMD YES BUY MORE BOOKS AND DRINK MORE STARBUCKS. That should be one of mine...

    Micaiah
    http://www.notebooksandnovels.com

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