With a small week to myself, I am ready to assess the writing goals I had last year and determine my approach for 2024.

When I do a yearly assessment, I try to keep the format simple. There are a few standard questions: what worked, what didn’t work, what did I find challenging, and what did I learn? It is not so much a numbers game, as it is more important to build a writing habit than getting a number in general. If you choose, you can also practice your own yearly reflection and see what can inspire you as we shift further into the cold winter months.

What Worked?

To start, I am genuinely happy that I have been persistent with blogging over these past several months. It has taken me a long time to build up my SEO skills, get familiar with my preferred writing format, and develop a confident voice. I used to have far more apprehension with my word choices, spend inordinate amount of time choosing a topic, and so much more. (Don’t ask about the drafts folder, it barely exists!)

What has worked is having a general deadline, creating an atmosphere for myself to focus on writing, and just getting my butt in a chair with the laptop open to my actual project. No video games, no typing practice, nor YouTube videos. There has been a resurgence of music in my life – bossa nova jazzy tunes to endless streams of Mozart concertos. Music tunes out the noisy part of my mind, and volia! The fingers do the rest.

Additionally, I managed to harness the flow of emotions to focus into specific projects. Which, most were carried around in a large purse or canvas bag. My materials were accessible, easy to slip in when waiting for an appointment or rehearsal to start. There are little patches of time through out the day that could help with carving into projects.

What Didn’t Work?

To be fair, for the longest time my standards were on the floor. A haiku scribbled during rehearsal? Still counted. Did I fart out a sad stumble of words on the page a few times? Absolutely. It was about quantity, not quality. Or just annoyed perseverance.

Certainly, I wanted to be a lot more writing to be done. My mind wanted to accomplish something every month, every week, every day. You know, get up on that grind, just go go go.

Yeah no, that is one way to fast track to burnout. And really feeds into old perfectionist tendencies. I would argue that for the first five months of 2023 I was feeling drained and uninspired. My mind was always somewhere else, constantly trying to fit myself into whatever current frameworks were occuring. But nothing quite fit. So, I kinda just gave up. And the brain went buzz for awhile.

I could have gone to more writing groups and socialized with others more. I feel like I missed out on some cool events because I was always waiting for something else to happen. Sometimes you just need to get out and do something instead of writing alone at home.

What was the biggest challenge of 2023?

My biggest challenge last year is not what I expected. I had the support groups necessary to write; inspiration came in spurts but consistently so; I have the resources for writing, I am meeting others and speak about writing well.

It feels odd to say, but the biggest challenge was about having faith. Faith in myself, faith in the stories I’m crafting, speaking and writing with confidence. It is a difficult task when one is prone to minimizing themselves. But cutting yourself short and curbing your passions is a massive disservice to all.

Passion is what drive humans to greatness, to craft and dream incredible impossible things. Passion is yelling from the rooftops of your love, the whispers of devotion to your craft. Faith is passion: it’s big and scary. It is overwhelming as it possesses you to the core.

Faith is maintaining passion even when that person is not there; it is consistent, it is discipline, and living in the present fully aware.

What will be carried into 2024?

There is a certain high, maybe mild depersonalization, from moving with faith. I feel like a spaceman or like I’m floating out in the depths of the ocean: a single move can send me flying in one direction or another. I’m not quite tethered to the world, but hovering just above it so I can return to the ground.

It is a weird sensation, but also an odd comfort. I wish I could say things will definitely happen this year. But it’s truly an air of “What will be, will be.” Normally I get in a defiant mood, say frick you to the universe and try to do things out of sheer will.

Not this year. No, I have my passions to maintain and thoughts to express.

It’s a good year for change, and I for one, am excited to see what comes next.