Making New Year’s Resolutions Fun

The Christmas tree is reflected in a storefront window, overlapping a coffee tree at the Coffee Tree coffee shop in downtown Loveland, Colo. It’s sparkly and fun, just like New Year’s resolutions should be to make them easier to carry out.

New Year’s Eve is sparkly, bubbly, colorful and fun—and then there’s the countdown.

For me, Jan. 1 is both a letdown and an exciting time. First, the holidays are over, presents are unwrapped, and it seems like a long time to Valentine’s Day (and lots of candy) and even longer to spring.

January is my least favorite month (short days, too much snow) until I remember it’s the month for … Resolutions! I love goal setting because of the whole self-improvement thing, but it’s also a way to accomplish something and to have an excuse for self-reward.

What are your resolutions for 2020? The usual of exercising more, eating less, finding a new job, increasing your reading or learning a new skill or hobby?

A Writing Tangent

My resolutions are around writing—to publish a couple of my novels, to write a short story a month and to do more professional writing. I also want to improve my blog so it’s fun and exciting. This is how I originally started this blog:

Writing is essential to a business to market its products and services, build brands and reach customers.

But is it necessarily something that you want to do?

Sure, that’s all right, but it’s not fun. Why? Because you can read those sentences pretty much anywhere, maybe with a word change or two. As a note, I just went on a tangent off the subject of resolutions, which typically doesn’t make for good writing. Professional writing needs to be straight like an arrow, moving from point to point with enough details while avoiding overwriting.

So back to the point of making and keeping resolutions. Statistics show that only 8 percent of those who make resolutions follow through with their plans. Being part of that group can be exciting and also rewarding by the end of the year.

For those who want to make writing a goal for 2020, for example, can set a schedule for writing, such as a half-hour a day or two times a week. They can find a place to do the writing. And they can reward themselves for accomplishing the goal to continue the momentum.

Focusing on Resolutions

For resolutions in general, here are a few good steps to take:

• Pick a resolution that makes you feel excited and is something you want to do. Don’t pick something that you think is good for you, like exercising an hour a day when 15 minutes is better to get used to it.
• Opt for one to three resolutions instead of a long list of everything you ever wanted to accomplish in life. Lists are difficult to manage (I made a 30-item to-do list, and it took four months to get through it). Plus, being selective can help you focus your efforts on what you really want to accomplish.
• Break the resolutions into smaller steps that can be accomplished each week or month.
• Be specific in your goals, such as planning to blog once a week, posting it on the same day to be consistent and build traction.
• Identify your most productive time of day to work and fit your goals into that time frame, even if it is for a half-hour for three or four days a week. A lot can be accomplished in small chunks.
• Place a written statement of your goals in a prominent place, such as on your desk or the fridge. Seeing the resolutions will be a reminder, and even if you are busy at that moment, you can visualize how you will carry them out.
• Create a checklist of accomplishments toward your goals, marking the time you put in each week. This is a way to make sure you’re meeting your goals and figuring out if any adjustments need to be made.

Working on your resolutions is a reward for moving toward self improvement. Reward yourself every quarter or for certain accomplishments. Soon, the resolution will become routine and eventually a habit. And once a habit, it will be something that will get noticed.

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Merry Christmas (with Reflections on Joy)

Holiday decorations add color and joy to the lagoon in downtown Loveland, Colo.

Christmas can be a season of joy or not so much depending on your personal story and outlook on holidays in general.

First off, there’s the over-commercialization and the religious aspects. There also can be stress, anxiety and fatigue from a change in routine. I think of it as another month of the year with lots of red and green, repetitive (and beautiful) Christmas music, and a time to practice contentedness.

The Joy Bubble

That contentedness comes from acceptance and a bubble—I accept what is, I try for what I want, and I have a bubble around me to protect me from negative emotions. I feel them, of course, and then let them go. I also encounter crap (from not-so-nice people and things not working out just how I want) that I absorb being highly sensitive, but then I have to move on.

However, I haven’t fully learned the turn-the-other-cheek lesson, though as a non-confrontational person, I say things in my usual sweet voice (but my thoughts are not so nice). I want to work on my thoughts and brush off the negative and quickly move on.

Why am I going into all of this? Well, I committed to a weekly blog (and skipped a few weeks this year) and can’t seem to focus on writing. I just talked with a friend who brought up the holidays depression bit, and I told him about my bubble and how I go out in nature every day (I’m a runner and photographer) and take joy in that.

The Joy Choice

Joy, really, is a choice (for those of us who aren’t in the midst of awful life situations)—but if life is okay enough with bills paid, a job, friends, family and everything in place, it can be practiced on a daily basis (or at least for the most part). I chose joy because I don’t like being down. It’s too stressful, and it makes me tired. It takes more energy being sad and angry than going about, thinking, “Whatever.”

In my practice of joy this year, I even liked to learn snow. I used to say I hate snow, but then I realized how pretty it is stuck all sparkly like to the trees. We got two-plus feet of it here in Colorado just before Thanksgiving, and it’s still hanging about. Joy.

I also learned to like having a business—it’s kind of hard, at least for me as a dreamy artist type. I go to the Loveland Business Development Center and am advised to make my blog about promoting my writing and editing. I really doubt I did that here.

Writing for Joy

But here goes—the holidays are a busy time of year (wonderful or sad, however you look at them), but the need to market doesn’t go away just because it’s December. In fact, blogs, articles and edited content need to be kept up to pace, so that when it’s Jan. 1 and resolution time, the getting-behind-feeling won’t be there, and it will be time to start anew with new goals.

The thing about goals is that meeting them, even halfway, is a way to feel joy. I know, because I’m still in business after three years (I thought that would never happen), I came up with a plan to publish my novels, and I’m improving as a writer because I do it all the time. All. The. Time.

I love writing. I found my love. How can I not be joyful with a big love like that?

Fast and Fun Tips for Fitting in Blogging

Fitting in blogging into a busy schedule is similar to ducks finding a small circle of water within a snow-covered lagoon.

The holidays are full of busyness, but if blogs are a key marketing tool for your business, how can you fit it in?

If you don’t hire out the blogs, which for greatest impact, should be posted every week or at least once month, how can you find the time and space to write them?

In other words, think about The What and The Where, or the act of writing and the physical place to do it that feels the most inspiring and comfortable. But this comfort shouldn’t limit you to writing only when you have the time and can be in that exact spot.

Instead, sneak in writing in small increments and think of writing spots as being anywhere you can sit or stand. Realize that the setting doesn’t have to be perfect, nor does the writing or the tools—use a eyebrow pencil and a napkin or scrap of paper if need be. And carry a notebook wherever you go, since inspiration can hit at unplanned and awkward moments.

Finding a Writing Spot

To find a good writing spot, ask yourself a few questions, making sure you’re ready to write. For instance:

• Do you need quiet or activity around you? Do you like having background noise to stimulate you as you work?
• Do you want to write in solitude or be around other people?
• Do you like working outside, in an office or in a cozy small space?
• Do you want your things around you set up in a special way to serve as a source of inspiration or comfort?
• Do you want to go somewhere away from home and the excuses of chores and whatever else can distract you?
• Do you have a time of day when you do your best writing? Do you need a routine, or a schedule?

Other Ideas for Writing Spots

Here are a few places you can try: a desk in the bedroom or living room, the library, coffee shops, restaurants, a patio or even a bar.

Once you find the right spot, make that your writing office or special place to engage in and write your blogs. But also think of that writing spot as wherever you have an idea or a spark of a great phrase.

 

The Gratitude Wall (and Being Thankful)

 

The paper leaves offer an opportunity to reflect on gratitude.

Have you heard of donor walls, where nonprofits and businesses thank their contributors?
Well, the Gratitude Wall is a take on that, at least at the assisted living center I visited on Thanksgiving Day. I thought it was going to be another year of the Gratitude Tree, where we put something we’re thankful for on leaf-shaped cutouts and adhere them to a tree centerpiece.

The Gratitude Leaves

This year, the activities director of the center, which is in Fort Collins, Colo., left folded orange leaves on the dining room tables. The leaves look like tiny greeting cards with “I am thankful for:” on the front that you open up for two blank spaces. The director told us to list the things that make us feel grateful, preferably before our meal of turkey and the fixings arrived, so we could talk about it over lunch. She asked us if we wanted to read them aloud (a half-dozen people raised their hands), or have staff hang them on a wall somewhere in the center.

Most of the residents opted for hanging the leaves—I imagine the result will look like a donor wall, but I only stayed for a couple of hours after the meal and didn’t see it by the time I left.

Anyway, on my leaves, I wrote, “Reading, Writing, Coffee, My Business, Getting Published, My Family and Friends, and Zoey, My dog!”

My mom said, “I knew you’d put Zoey in there.” Of course. She’s a cute, 12-pound miniature dachshund who is my BFF, coworker and whatever else.

The Gratitude List

My list could have gone on and on, but I placed reading and writing first, because those are my hobbies and the key skills for my writing and editing profession. I said my business, because even though it’s hard to go it alone, you can create your own life if you work at it. I added the publishing bit, because I recently got a short story published in “Rise: An Anthology of Change,” compiled by the Northern Colorado Writers. And I put my family and friends, because without their love, support and advice, I wouldn’t be where I’m at—I would still be at square one of figuring out how to have a business.

I should have put the Loveland Business Development Center, because the consultants there have given me advice, tips and homework, pushing me toward success—though, I feel like I’m in the middle, still striving. I still have a weekend gig job. I have a pile of novels and short stories I want to see published. And I can do better with my business. Lots better.

Next Year’s Gratitude

What makes you feel gratitude? Does your gratitude help you see success personally and professionally? How so? What do you want to add to your gratitude list next year?

For me, it’s a traditionally published novel, an improved blog and lots of business!