Thursday, January 29, 2015

Adieu, January (ROW80)

Greetings, Earthlings!

People all over the country are gearing up for multiple snow storms, and here in Southern California, we've had a couple rainy and foggy days, and are expecting another one or two over the weekend...It's so weird adjusting to desert "Seasons" sometimes...

To recap my January-March writing/life goals, which I was trying to make more specific but also more wide-reaching:



JANUARY (5th) - March (26th)
Part A (Creativity & Social Media)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises for 3+ days). 
Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

Part B (Catching up with life):
1. Continue to track my exercise, increase my fitness levels, and get outside on weekends.
2. Get my finances in order.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague).
3. Decluttering, and re-organizing/re-claiming my room.
4. Aim for having my 100th post in May (my 2-year marker for the blog!). At least try...

Let's see.  I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule.  My weekends are getting to be more productive (by necessity), but I am still quite tuckered out during the weekday evenings.  If I'm somewhat social during some evenings, AND do some stretches, that is a win, basically.

I've been running errands, and dealing with some small car repairs, so I haven't gotten outside as much the last couple of weeks, and I'm really feeling it.  So I really do want to make sure that I get some fresh air and some sort of aerobic activity on weekends.  I'm inside all the time during the week, and by the time I get home, it's dark...

I feel a pressure over my head to write, and to keep being creative.  I love the energy of an idea, but I hate feeling like I "have" to do something, like my creative time's become homework or something...And yet I loved art assignments in school, and being part of an artistic community, both at school and in my weaver's guild the last couple of years.  Some of it's clearly mental...I'm in transition, and I need to build new traditions and edge out of my comfort zone.  I've moved away from my weaver's guild, and I feel like I'm not getting as much of a creative community now, to give me ideas and encourage me to finish up assignments. I'm kind of wondering if, if I were to join a guild member's online guild, I would get the same feeling of camaraderie and inspiration and social re-charging, without being in the same physical space?  I really like the ROW80 community, but our interactions are definitely a bit sporadic, and writing's a very solitary sport.  And yet, weaving and crafting often are, too.  Anyhoo, here I am back to waffling about choices.  I want to be inspired to create, not weighed down by "lost" opportunities.  I've got to figure out how to re-frame the dialogue in my head...

Any big plans for February?  I still need to address most of my goals.  They all remain active and relevant.  How about yours?

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Regrouping (ROW80)


Well, I posted my January ROW80 goals a few weeks ago.  They were as follows:

JANUARY (5th) - March (26th)
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post, however minimal).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises, for 3+ days in a row).  Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

I was trying to be more specific with this round's goals, so that I would have concrete boxes to aim for and (hopefully) check off daily or weekly.

But...life...

I've been adjusting to a new work schedule, which gives me more free time in the evenings, but I get more tired and often end up staring at the internet until bedtime.  If I'm lucky, I run an errand on my way home and prepare the next day's meals before I run out of steam.  And I think vaguely about my creative projects.  I have a crafts blog entry that's pretty much finished, except for one or two photos I still need, that I never get around to taking.  And my unfinished NaNoWriMo story is starting to look at me reproachfully.

I also keep finding myself looking backward, into memories, rather than forward, into the future.  This can be good fodder for writing, but it can also be hard on the emotions.  I've been thinking about a quote that's attributed to Confucius (*paraphrased): "We have two lives. The second begins when we realize we only have one."  I think this is very relevant when you're at any crossroad, and a bit lovely, but I also think that a part of my mind refuses to accept the extra pressure that comes with acknowledging that it might be true.

I still really like my goals.  And I need to get more exercise and creativity going, so I still think they have validity.

But for the near future, I feel like I also need to itemize the things that really need to get done.  In life, in general.  Not as a guilt-trip, but as a reminder and a checklist that's conveniently in one place.

1. Continue to track my exercise (I've maintained this list for a whole year!), and seriously increase my fitness levels.  I'm more interested in upping my number of times exercised per week, at this point.  And continue making sure I get outside on weekends.

2. Get my finances in order.  I was tracking my expenses last year, and I want to restart-doing this.  I want some concrete numbers to mull over.  Also, address insurance, taxes and a new budget ASAP (however vague, I would like a new budget for my new year).

3. Decluttering.  My organized piles have been seriously encroaching on my living space, and I have some boxes that need to be sorted and reduced.  I need to re-start addressing this.  I feel so much better, and my head feels clearer, when I'm not surrounded by stuff.  As an avid keeper-of-things, this is a bit of a conundrum.

4. I will reach the second anniversary of my blog the first week of May.  I think it would be kind of cool to aim for that week to also have my 100th post.  I'm at 73 now, with this post, and there are about 15 weeks until the first week of May, so I would need to average about 2 posts a week, or about 9ish posts a month, which seems a little daunting, but possibly possible (...maybe?).

So that's where I am!  How are your Januarys going?  Are you encountering a lot of life changes, too??

Friday, January 9, 2015

January

Well, it's been pretty chilly everywhere that I've been the last couple of weeks.  I'm done travelling for the time being.  I didn't see any snow during my trip over the holidays, but there've been plenty of beautiful cloudy, sunlit skies, and moments of rain everywhere I've been.  It's warm-blankets-while-the-rain-falls-outside weather, yum.

I've been pondering how I want to re-work my ROW80 goals for 2015. 

To review, here were my ROW80 goals for November and December, 2014:

WRITING-SPECIFIC GOALS
1. Blog Sketches
2. Blog Posts (10+ blog posts for November & December Two ROW80/NaNoWriMo update posts & one crafts-based post per week)
3. Vlog Idea
4. Creative Writing
********************
ONGOING SOCIAL MEDIA/PERSONAL GOALS:
5. Tweet more Original Content & Reply to at least one ROW80 post or comment per update interval.
6. Keep Up with Minimum Exercise Goals (3/3/3: 3 sets of 3 exercises, 3 days in a row).

I really found that the goals I wanted to do were the ones that actually got done regularly, while the ones I thought SHOULD get done were often shunted to the side, or just barely completed each week.  But it was definitely helpful and motivating to keep reviewing my goals (and remembering how doable they were), and I liked getting feedback and inspiration from other ROW-80-ers (how's that for a word?).  And it was nice to be posting blogs more often again.
 
But the specific, small goals were definitely most likely to get done...The open-ended goals got pushed aside, to be defined and resolved later, when I had more time or energy, or different equipment, etc.  And it was kind of sad to see those bullets consistently not being met (the vlog idea, for example).  So I'm going to try to start this January session off with fewer goals, but specific ones.  Also, my schedule has changed, and my energy is directed elsewhere, so I think these types of goals will help encourage me to continue, per the whole ROW80 philosophy.
 
JANUARY
1. 1-2 blog posts per week (Ideally: 1 ROW80 post, 1 crafts-based post, however minimal).
2. Do something creative every day.  Doodles still count.
3. Exercise--Ideal goal: 3x3x3 (3 sets of 3 exercises, for 3+ days in a row).  Bare minimum: 1 set of stretches.
4. Social Media: Check in with all of my accounts/communities every week.

I still need to figure out how to encourage myself to keep working on my NaNoWriMo story, while the characters are still fresh (I keep saying that...).  But I liked how another ROW80-er simply aspired to daily "creativity" last session.  That could cover writing, crafting, or even cooking...and there's less guilt for not focusing on certain projects at a given time.
 
So, we'll see how this set works out!

Good luck with your own goals!  And stay warm (or in your perfect seasonal climate)!