When Resolutions Work.

Last year I made the first resolution that I have ever managed to keep and let me tell you it feels really good. 

On January 1st, 2012 I resolved that I would complete my book. It wasn't the first time I had resolved this but this time I got serious. I set myself a target of writing, at least, one word a day because I found that a hard target to argue with. Everyone has time to write one word don't they? It meant that most days I wrote between 500 and 1,000 words and my 99,125 word manuscript was completed in March. Then came the endless edits and rewrites but still, by August, I was ready to send my first attempt at a novel out to agents. I didn't sit by the door waiting for their reply, however, instead I accepted the advice of a good friend and got started on the next book, a collaboration with a friend, which we self-published on Amazon at the end of October. I currently have two other works in progress and a further joint project I am about to start as well as a collection of short stories I am currently enjoying writing. All in all making that resolution in January 2012 helped me to achieve on of my life's ambitions, it kept me focused and help me to recognise what I needed to do to achieve a stated goal.

I'm going to try again this year I think.

Obviously the writing one word a day resolution has to continue.

Then there's the perennial doing more exercise. I'm plumping for 30 minutes a day and I'm including things like walking the dog and playing Just Dance or Wii Fit. Today we went for a two hour walk down the sea front so I've ticked my first day already, though of course today it didn't rain!

Also, in trying to get my diabetes under control, I have decided that this year I am not going to buy any cakes, sweets, crisps or chocolate and I am also not going to consume them at Church events. I go to a Vineyard Church and we have cakes with everything so this should make a difference though it will require huge amounts of will power.

Finally I turn to my blog. I really enjoy reading blogs and follow several regularly which make me laugh, think and sometimes even cry. Last January I started this blog to try and make sense of my departure from regular work to follow my dream of writing for a living and, to be frank, I kind of failed. I stopped blogging here back in April, though I have blogged for my Church quite regularly. So my final New Year's resolution will be to blog once a week. I set up a reminder in my phone for every Tuesday and I'm determined that every week I will commit some opinion or other to 'paper', so to speak. Why not follow my progress here, that way you won’t have to wait until next January’s blog to know if I succeeded or not.  :-)

Day Five

For a number of years now I have been more and more concerned by consumerism and the way it has been sucking me in.  The idea that what I own or am able to buy somehow gives meaning and purpose to my life and adds value to me as an individual is one that we are encouraged by the advertising all around us to see as the norm and, in a rare moment of lucidity I realised I didn't agree.  It all started a number of years ago when, on one of my all time favourite shows, Dharma & Greg, Dharma was having a declutter and when asked why she replied 'because if you own too much stuff pretty soon it starts owning you.'.  The more I thought about that the more true it seemed, not that it really did anything to curb my buying stuff, after all I didn't buy nearly as much stuff as other people did I so it wasn't really my problem was it?

However this December we had some big, unexpected outlays.  The car needed a new clutch and gearbox, which decided to break two days before we were due to drive to Scotland meaning we also needed to rent a car for 10 days.  When we got back from our holiday the wooden stairs from our kitchen down to our garden gave up the ghost and became too dangerous to stand on meaning we had to pay to get them fixed then we had a very large, unexpected bill we had to pay.  All this before we'd started buying Christmas presents for our large and extended family and friends.

Now, as many of you will know, I have amazing friends and we all decided that we would 'charity shop' and 'second-hand' for pressies because it is, after all, the thought that counts.  We had a fantastic time finding wonderful, perfect little bargains which brought such joy both for me when I found them and to the recipients when I gave them so why then, I wondered, did I feel like I was somehow cheating on my presents?

I did a bit of soul-searching and realised that I really did believe the monetary cost of a gift said something about its value.  That shocked me.  I would never have said I bought into consumerism but here I was waist deep.  Something had to be done.  I needed a break and to re-evaluate why I buy gifts, which I love doing.  I came up with a radical solution.  My new years resolutions.  Normally I don't make resolutions just because I don't really see why Jan 1st is any different to any other new day but this year I decided to challenge myself. So I have three new years resolutions.

1.  No new clothes.  I am only allowed to buy second-hand or make them myself.
2.  Nothing new for the house.  Again I'm only allowed to buy second-hand or go skip-diving etc
3. (And this is the toughie) I am not allowed to buy anything new to give to people as presents, they need to be pre-owned, hand-made or (because I want my friends to still be my friends at the end of the year) I am allowed to make a donation to charity on their behalf if that is what they prefer.

We're only 14 days in but I do have two good friends' birthdays coming up at the very start of February and I've already got their gifts within my new limits so I'm feeling pretty good about it all so far. Will keep you all informed of how it goes through-out the year.

PS I have now found the spell-check but lost my glasses so the spelling should be ok but as this all looks like a grey blur to me I'm sorry for all the extra spaces etc.

Day Two

So 22 days left!  Sorted out my final drawer today, feels very strange, not quite real still tomorrow I get to do my favourite part of my job, albeit for the last time and meet with lovely people for coffee and cakes. 

As for my plans for the rest of the year, well they are fourfold (if that is such a word).

Firstly, I'm going to finish writing my book.  I'm 36,000 words in and about half way through the story so it's getting there.
Secondly, I'm really looking forward to working with my Church on their exciting community project.
Thirdly, my friend and I are going to start selling weird & woolie things at various craft fairs around the country.
Finally I've always fancied having a go at being an extra, it looks like an interesting way to boarden your horizons and dress up in clothes you'd never get to wear otherwise and, for a chronic people watcher like me, even the endless hanging around has promise so I thought this would be a good year to sign up to an agency and see what happens.

So these are my goals for 2012 and my blog will be a way of keeping track of my progress and keeping myself on track.  I don't know if anyone will ever read it but I think I'll have fun writing it and perhaps, in a few years time, it will be fun to look at the year off I took and see if I really managed to do the things I set out to. Watch this space, as they say...