All I can say is “WOW“. It’s hard to believe that a decade is coming to an end and a new one is on the horizon. And what’s even harder to believe is that two full weeks (December 15th – 28th) went by soooooooooo incredibly fast and I didn’t get much done at all in the way of my writing goals for the remainder of 2019.
I remember a fellow blogger encouraging me to finish the year out strong and I told him that my intent was to most certainly do so. Now, the fact that I didn’t get my second book self-published by the end of the year or my audio book completed for Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult isn’t a sign of defeat. In fact, I moved my deadlines for completion for both of these projects to January 2020 before I even got into these last two full weeks of the year. I had good reasons for doing so.
And, I also won’t scold myself for taking some much-needed rest and relaxation from the regular writing routine of blogging, finalizing book #2, verbally exercising by reading out loud in preparation for my audio book recording, and researching information on best practices for self-publishing. No. I’m not about to negate all the wonderful progress I’ve made in 2019 or self-sabotage the accomplishments that await my future.
From my personal end-of-the-year experience, I feel like I’ve come out on top . . . more refreshed, charged, and focused than ever. Sure, I have some work that started in 2019 that will have to be wrapped up in 2020. But that’s the beauty of being a creative entrepreneur who has time to work on her craft, doing those activities she loves and doing them in a time frame that works for her capabilities.
Furthermore, I’m busting at the seams to start on new projects that I’ve already concocted in my mind and have loosely written down. (I’ll get into serious thought processes about my new 2020 goals once I’ve completed those goals that are currently in progress.)
Now, I may have taken a break from my writing goals, but I did manage to get quite a bit of writing (and work, in general) done. I wrote a whole blogging week for Degrees of Maternity during the week of December 15th and I managed to put out two YouTube videos: one from “The Misguided Worker Mentality” series (didn’t have to create new scripting here) and one that required brand-new scripting that resulted in a 13 minute-long video. You can check out the newest video here. And with these videos, I was required to do some vocal work, which gave the old voice a little audio recording practice.
I also created a Schedule Board to keep me on track with accomplishing tasks that lead to the bigger goals I’m looking to achieve. And, I plan on administering the schedule, starting the week of January 5th. (I wanted to wait until all the vacation time was over, so I could get to what my regular weekly routine will look like.) You can see how I constructed my board by reading the blog post, entitled Schedule Board Before the Vision Board. So overall, I did put in some major work over the past two weeks.
Needless to say, enjoying my family being home from school and work the week of the 22nd was a priceless gift that I could use more of. We were able to bask in the glow of a glorious time of doing nothingness. Honestly, we all need these periods of unproductive activity every once in a while. I must say that I’m a better person for it.
Now, back to the new projects for 2020. New projects develop from new ideas. And the only reason I was able to think of my future endeavors during this past week was due to my mind’s freedom to think about them.
It’s amazing how the mind can perform at its creative best when it’s not bombarded by all the incoming, countless activities that need to be managed during a regularly-scheduled daily and weekly routine.
What an ah-hah moment! And what a great way to end this last weekly report for the year. I can truly say that I ended the year on a creative high. Woo hoo! I can’t wait for the weeks to come and I can’t wait to share with you my experience with free-flow thought this past week. Tune in tomorrow for some sneak peeks into my creative process.
degreesofmaternity.com 