January is a harsh month. Not just because here in the UK it’s cold, usually wet, and seemingly always so dark, but it’s also a long month – payday is a long way away, the majority of funds have been spent at Christmas, or for Christmas, and now it’s back to work with the next opportunity for Bank Holiday relaxation in April, for Easter.
It’s also this time of year that we try and install new habits and approaches in our lives, and inevitably fail! So as the end of the month finally arrives, we tend to feel broke, weary, and deflated. It’s ‘just another year’, and we fall back to our default position, and our usual internal monologues that encourage us to do those things we ‘should’ do, way before those things we dream we want to do.
I have to admit, if you read those previous paragraphs with a heavy heart and nodding head, I’m there with you. I had so many ambitious plans for the month, and almost every single one of them have been obliterated in the fog of procrastination, avoidance, and sometimes laziness.
But, and this is a big BUT, this does not define my year. We all know January is a hard month. It is an annual refrain! Yet, one of the many things I dedicated myself to this year was to read for at least twenty minutes a day. You know what? I’ve read a total of six books so far this year…This I am pleased with (and I still might have time to sneak another one in!).
Still. No, I didn’t manage to commit to my stretches every other day. And no, my outline for the novel and character arcs for each of the main characters hasn’t been completed. No, I haven’t touched that list of independent publishers I put together in the first week of the year to investigate submissions. And, sorry, no I didn’t quite manage to own it at work everyday and push through some of the tasks I promised myself would get done by the end of this week.
I did, however, try.
For the first four years, this blog’s tagline was – I would much prefer to say ‘I tried and failed’ rather than ‘I didn’t even bother’. This is just as true today as it was then. As my friend and mentor Jo Bendle would say – Reward effort, not results. Because sometimes you can’t control the results, but what you can do is take ownership of your efforts.
I know what didn’t get done. In some cases, I know why it didn’t happen. Which means I’m now much better equipped to tackle it in the coming weeks. I don’t even have to wait until February to review my month and make a plan. I can start right now.
And I did: by writing this blog post.
One more thing off my January goal list.
Did you see my short story in February’s Writing Magazine? So pleased to be a winner for their competition based on the theme of ‘hate’. Really pushed me to create a character with a complex personality and situation.
One more piece on my way to the dream of becoming a novelist.
