Oh the pressure.
The start of the New Year should be a time of joy, a time of hope. But instead, it is a time of dread. At least for me.
Why?
New Year’s resolutions.
They are so nice and shiny in early January. Come March, April, November they darken when I realize that what I set out to do isn’t going as I planned.
So this year – no resolutions!
This will be the year of living in the moment, living freely, living without the burden of my unfulfilled resolutions.
That’s what I keep telling myself. During the pauses, though, I’m scheming about how to expand my freelance writing business, and I’m plotting my next novel, and I’m joining the YMCA. I’m working on my pitch for novel #1 and sending out partials to editors and agents. I’m clearing my house of all of the buildup of junk (shredding old papers is fun!) and scheduling blog posts for the next few months.
Robert Burns was right: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley.” Or Steinbeck’s version: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”
Not making any plans for the future is impossible for me, even with the knowledge that I’m going to be disappointed when what I set out to achieve does not turn out as intended. So my plan not to plan in fact has gone astray.
Which leaves me where? Alive and moving forward, I suppose. And that isn’t a bad place to be, even if disappointment is part of the experience.
How about you? Do you find resolution making a tricky business? Do you do it anyway?
