Hmm. The serious illness in the family was still a problem (DH alone gave me grey hair with his penicillin reaction, let alone the other people I was worrying about – and in fact still am, because some of it’s ongoing), but the rest of it worked out fine.
Goals for this year:
- Work-life balance/stress management. Keep this going – the big key to this is having a routine and sticking to it. Sure, it can be flexible (i.e. nice day = possible time off), but building in time for emergencies is a good idea. I have to be realistic about Dad: his condition will get worse rather than better, and it’s a matter of building on the good days (and maybe ringing the home before I visit – he gets more out of the visit on a good day, too, whereas on a bad day he might not know I’ve visited, so it makes sense to try to get as many good days as I can so we both get the best of it).
- Exercise and weight management. Keep this going, too. The key to this is planning meals a week in advance (again, I can be flexible, but if it’s written down I’m more likely to be sensible) and keeping my online food diary (and I’m honest with it, so that’s a good thing). Keep going with the Wii (OK, so weighing myself every day isn’t ideal, but then again it also stops me sliding). The goal is to be back to my wedding weight – preferably by my wedding anniversary, but the end of the year will do. And then stay there!
- Writing. I want to lift my game a little – I want my books to really move people. As last year, I’ll track it through reader feedback, reviews, award shortlistings and bestseller lists. And as I’ve cut back a little on the local history (something had to give!), that should give me the space to sort another project I’ve wanted to do for a while. In theory.
Do you have any resolutions or goals for this year? I’d love to hear them.I wish you all health, happiness and fulfilment for 2010. Happy New Year!
14 comments:
And the same best wishes to you Kate. Have a lovely evening and hopefully some writing :-)
I haven't thought much about resolutions yet. Too busy working. But probably much the same as you. Raising my game sounds about right. I've been achieving that in poetry, to a certain extent, but I've been wading through treacle as far as prose fiction is concerned. I have a vague idea where I'd like to be in another decade, fiction-wise, but much depends on the next few years.So my main thought for 2010 is to write to a very specific market, instead of wasting my time on other, smaller targets - which bring in pocket money, but little else!
Losing weight is always on the list. I'm not very good at that one ... ;)
I'd like to raise my game, too. We'll see.
Oh, and the weight thing. I'd like to lose a stone before the end of the year. It should be simple - if only I could master the art of making a coffee without automatically grabbing a chocolate biscuit. Sigh. And I still have a lot of Christmas chocolate to eat.
A happy new year to you and yours!
Writing:
Finish the WIP novel to submission standard. (It's currently in second draft, never a happy time.)
Write another novel or two to first draft.
Write a couple of scripts to submission standard.
Life:
Clean the house. Really clean it, like it hasn't been cleaned since last century.
Finish repainting the hallway...which I started in November 2008.
Do one thing that's completely new. I don't know what, yet. It'll be fun finding out. :-)
And apologies if this is terribly forward of me, but one of my 2009 resolutions was to build myself a website. Behold http://mpericson.com/
Happy 2010 to everyone!
mpe
Happy New Year Kate! Oh how I would love to "raise my game" to a 10th of your output! You are amazing 300k + words in a year - wow - no make that double *WOW*!
Take care. Caroline x
Nina - thank you :o) Back from the dreaded post office (another huge wait - passport apps) and lunch out (my kids are SUCH bad influences), so now I'm working...
Jane - good luck with your aims, and tailoring everything to a specific market sounds a great idea.
Know what you mean about the weight, but the Harcombe diet is good - it fits easily in to cooking for a family (main thing for me is staying off wheat: am a bread junkie).
Shirley - you're already doing v nicely with the Max and Jill books (and I can still see them working on TV).
Coffee and biscuits. Yeah. The way to break that one is to switch to peppermint tea, because biscuits taste vile with it. (So does the tea, but... No, am going to be good!)
MPE - you sound really focussed workwise, which is good (and your website's lovely, btw - nice and clean. Had to smile about the mice and spiders!)
Cleaning and painting - ah, now that's halo material :o)
And good on you for doing something new. As you say, finding out will be fun.
Happy new year!
Caroline - that's why Kate Walker dubbed me "Scary Kate" - and I guess I'm living up to it ;o)
Happy new year!
Kate - Thank you very much!
that's halo material
I tried one on once, but the tinsel fell off...
#
I forgot to say, regarding this:
maybe ringing the home before I visit
I think that's a really good idea, plus not feeling guilty about staying away on the bad days. People who love us want us to be happy. They may be ill and not themselves, but the person we love in return would never want us to suffer, let alone be the cause of that suffering.
mpe
Good luck with your goals for 2010 :-) I'm still thinking about mine. I have my 28 things to do aged 28 list on the go but I might think of one or two other things I want to work on too.
MPE - thank you. (And I'm grinning about your tinsel joke.)
Katie - thanks, and good luck with yours! Happy new year :o)
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