Still Resolutioning?

Well, it's almost the end of the first month of the new decade. How is your New Year's Resolution coming along? That good huh?

I think most people make a Resolution to stop some sort vice and to start exercising and to lose weight. Well my vice is writing. So instead of stopping something this year, I went the opposite way.

My New Year's Resolution was to get 12 things published this year. I didn't set my goals on The Rolling Stone or The New Yorker. I left my options open. And after submitting quite a few stories, I finally broke through and got two stories accepted by http://www.bartlebysnopes.com/ The stories are supposed to be published Feb. 1st exactly one month after I started my New Year's Resolution. So HA! to you slackers.

Now if you've already fallen off the wagon, this is your Tony Robbins speech for the day. You don't have to wait until next year to start trying. Instead, start at the beginning of February. And just for you, I'm going to give you this clip to watch to get you motivated.

Now get back on that that proverbial treadmill and "Run Forest Run!"

New Year's Resolutions

I am all for New Year’s Resolutions, even though I rarely keep them. Another year of promising myself I’ll exercise more and make more time for myself. I have been able to quit drinking, smoking and chewing tobacco but all three of those weren’t for Resolution Reasons. Those were more or less do or die situations and let's just leave it at that.

So this year, my resolution/goal is to write something everyday. I don’t care if it’s just a scribble in my notebook. I want to write something everyday. And from that, it’s my goal to get at least twelve things published this year. It doesn’t have to be published in the New Yorker or Playboy, although I’d like to have something published in both eventually. But for this year, I don’t care if its in a literary journal that only 500 people read, in a magazine, community newspaper or even on someone else’s website. By December 31, 2010, I want to have been published at least twelve times.

There you go. I put it out there, let’s see what happens. Don’t forget to set your goal whatever it is.

And oh btw, I’m counting this as my first writing exercise of the year.

A Decade in Reflection

I read many online newsletters. One of my favorite’s is from a man named Yanik Silver. I will say in advance that I don’t buy any of his products, but I do find him interesting.

In his last post, Yanik talked about the fact that most of the times people don’t take stock of what they’ve accomplished. He basically said, “We look to the horizon, not realizing we’ll never get there.” And when we do this, we constantly stay disappointed even when we have minor victories.

I have always been a New Year’s Resolution kinda guy. I rarely remember what they were by the end of the year, but still, I try and think of something I’m going to do next year that I wasn’t able to do this year. I’ve already decided that next year I want to get published at least twelve times. It doesn’t matter if it’s in books, magazines or even someone else's ezine. I’m putting myself and my work out there this year.

But in the spirit of Yanik’s idea of looking back to take stock in my accomplishments, here is a list of what I’ve done in the last 10 years:

12/00 Graduated from UM-St. Louis with a B.S. in Criminology and Criminal Justice, one of the top 5 CJ schools in the country.

7/01 After 10+ years of working I got my first job with benefits, Mon-Fri, weekends and holidays off.

2002—I bought my first house at age 26 and started dating Tejal

2003 Tejal and I got engaged and started working at the jail. Bought my car in cash, then again I’ve bought every car in cash except one.

2004 Got married.

2005 I received my Masters in Communications with a 4.0 GPA from Lindenwood.

1/07 Went to five cities in India and saw the Taj Mahal.

02/2007 Starting writing India book.

2006-2008 Took tons of writers workshops through Community College, Washington Univ. in St. Louis and Writers Guild.

5/09 Became the training coordinator for 120 Officers and 20+ support staff. Tejal and I celebrated our fifth anniversary.

9-19-09 My daughter was born.

10-09 We bought a new house and have a rental, although that was not really wanted.

Since my wife and I have been married we’ve averaged 2-3 trips a year together. We’ve been to Memphis, The Ozarks, Chicago twice, Roanoke VA, Mexico/Mayan Rivera/Cozumel twice, five cites in India, San Francisco, a Cruise to Key West and Cozumel—which should have been the Bahamas but there was a hurricane, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Las Vegas and the airports in London and Frankfurt—which I know don’t count as a trip but I can say, “Been there!” when it comes up in conversation.

Looking back, this decade was pretty good to me. I have met tons of new friends. I tried tons of new things and some bad things too. But luckily I made it through alive, I know a couple of people who didn’t.

I also know the next decade will be the big one for me career wise. It’s on to bigger and better things. And although I’ve had a pretty good career, satisfaction wise, I’m ready for the next piece of the puzzle to fall into place.