Autumn always brings mixed feelings for me. On the one hand it’s a season of
inspiration. The start of a new academic
year and the time to learn something new or at least be a bit more studious.
The season of opportunity where you can reassess your goals for the year and
start again. And there’s the peace and
quiet of the kids being back at school after weeks of lolling on the sofa
playing on the x-box or watching incredibly stupid American sit-coms - the kids not me, I've worked through the whole thing) and the chance to get back into a routine.
And as for my goals for the year – well they definitely need
a kick up the you-know-where. I started off the year full of plans and
determination but they soon fell by the wayside as you can tell from the lack
of blog posts.
I’d decided to try using a bullet journal to help get myself organised. My friend introduced me to the concept and said you could buy
them ready made, but after some research on You Tube, I decided that a plain
ruled notebook would do just as well. At
the back of the book I split my goals for the year up into different parts of
my life – home / work / writing and wrote down everything I wanted to achieve
for the year.
Then at the front of the book I headed up the pages into
months. On the front of the page for
January I wrote my goals for that month and on the other drew a calendar for
the month and added in all appointments and events I needed to attend. The
pages after then were filled with tasks that I wanted to achieve each day.
It worked in that it focussed my mind on what I needed to do
each day / month and it was handy to
have the essentials for the entire month on one page (no more rushing around
buying birthday cards and presents at the last minute because I’d forgotten!)
but it turned out rather depressing to find several items being carried over from day to day and month to month because I just couldn’t find the time. I still use it to a certain extent but like
most of my resolutions, it seems to have petered out.
It’s been a challenging year family-wise, lots of illnesses
and challenges to deal with, some short term but others longer term and more
significant and for a while now I have struggling with my own health which
impacts on my ability to find the motivation and energy to write. In June I finally received a diagnosis, and
whilst it was a relief to find out what is wrong with me (nothing
life-threatening, thankfully) it does mean that I have had to make some
adjustments to my life and will be on medication for the rest of it.
On the plus side so far I have survived all those challenges
and in the midst of it managed to complete a submission for the RNA New Writers
Scheme (not the one I intended but that’s another story) but something I have
been working on for a while and am really pleased with.
So, with all that out of the way, its time to reassess my
goals and make the most of the rest of my writing year.
The not so plus side of autumn is that is signifies the end
of summer, the end of light (if not heat if most of this summer was anything to
go by). Cold, dark days lie in
wait. But I’m going to look on the
bright side, batten down the hatches, snuggle up, and try and achieve some of those
remaining writing goals for the year.
And hopefully I’ll be blogging a bit more too!
What are your goals for the rest of the year?
