It can’t be overlooked that this blog’s become rather neglected of late. Imagine it as a walled garden – you peer through the wrought iron gate to see vines climbing the walls, weeds sprouting through cracks in the paving stones. Now it’s 2014, I aim to change that. I’ve never been one for new year’s resolutions – scepticism protects from disappointment – but even I can’t deny that if I say I’m going to do something, I should probably actually bloody well do it.
Therefore I lay before you my resolutions for 2014. They are to:
- Limit the time I spend fannying about on the internet. This is number one because I feel it’s the main factor in how much time I have to spend every day doing more important things. One of the ways I’m hoping to fulfil this is by shrinking the number of blogs I follow. Scrolling through seventeenth century fashion images and endless lists of unusual trivia is fun, but I can’t justify it when it sucks time I could be using to get work done.
- Keep working out. Not new, but a resolution nonetheless – I resolve not to give up on my thrice-a-week half-hour bodyweight exercise plan, and to continue to progress.
- Submit more stories. Submitting stories is a scary thing – did I get the tone of the cover letter right? is the formatting going to cock up on the editor’s computer? did I remember to cut out that sweary all-caps filler I shoved in the other night? – but it’s really rather vital to actually getting things published, which is my aim.
- Be nicer. Anger bad, empathy good. ‘Nuff said.
- Finally, blog more! I’ll unlock the rusty iron gate and wade in with my secateurs in one hand and a pack of seeds in the other. Blog seeds. From which will grow glorious, bright, untameable blog posts, dripping with the idea-nectar. (You can’t quash my unbridled metaphors, so don’t even try.)
One of the most important things about resolutions, new years’ or otherwise, is to remember to be kind to oneself. So you slipped and ate a whole 14″ pizza by yourself? Never mind. So a family emergency cropped up and you missed the gym? These things happen. And the more fun aspect of that: rewards! Finances allowing, I always try to reward myself when I reach a significant milestone. After six weeks of working out three times a week, I bought myself a fun tank top from activateapparel.com. Maybe you could get yourself jewellery or even just an iced bun.
To all resolutioneers (which is totally what we’re called, by the way) – I salute you. Good luck and godspeed!