I went into this year with a single resolution: to be the best version of myself that I could be. I’m calling it my year of the non-resolution resolution.
And gosh-darned if it isn’t working.
Mostly because it turns out that it really is about the little things, like not going back to bed after I get up to feed the cats. (Getting up at 5:00 a.m. took a bit of adjustment, but man, can I get a lot of work done with three or four extra hours in a day!)
Or moving the dog-walk to late afternoon so that I’m not breaking up the momentum of my work day.
Or systematically checking things off my to-do list no matter how much I want to avoid them. (I truly am the Queen of Procrastination when I give myself the opportunity. 😛 )
So far, those little changes have yielded some pretty decent results:
- My new website is up and I’m slowly learning my way around it (if you haven’t explored it yet, you should…because pretty. Just sayin’. 😉 )
- I’ve migrated all my books over from the now defunct Pronoun to my new distributor, Draft2Digital
- I’ve started taking several courses on marketing and promotion that are geared toward (and run by) authors so I can get my books into the hands of more readers who want them
- I’ve moved my newsletter to a new provider (definitely one of those housekeeping tasks I’d been avoiding)
- I’ve put together a tentative writing, publishing, and promotion schedule (an organizational first!) for the year ahead (Three releases…can I do it? Only time will tell. But at least I have a plan! 😀 )
- I’ve worked with a new cover designer to create a cohesive look and feel to the Ever After romance collection (check out the new covers for Gwynneth Ever After and Forever Grace, and keep an eye out for a new one for Forever After coming soon!)
- I’ve written a goodly chunk of Always and Forever, the upcoming novella addition to the Ever After collection
- I’ve put together a series notebook of characters and timeline events for the Ever After books (another organizational first).
Now, I know this may not look like an awful lot to some, but trust me…a few of these tasks have sucked up entire days of my time. That Pronoun thing, for instance? GAH. 😛
And, of course, there are a bajillion other things I still want/need to do, but I’m slowly learning that a part of being the best version of me is to remember to celebrate what I am doing, rather than beating myself up over what I’m not doing. The best version of me is the one who remembers that downtime (read: bubble baths with books 🙂 ) is important, too. And that life is still going to throw curve balls at me (and I won’t always duck in time).
In short, the best version of me is the one who shows up and does the best she can with what she has on any given day.
And so far? That’s made for a pretty kick-ass start to the year.
Hugs,
Linda
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