Jack of Many Trades

Fear of Commitment

Originally posted: 2018-01-03

If I've got a motto for 2018 I think it's gonna be commit. I feel like I'm behind on everything and I have a ton of things I want to do but haven't. I spent December working on a single project, a possibles bag for my magical kit, and while I did work on a few other small projects, coming back to this one again and again until it was done was fucking magical.

Last year when I decided to do it anyway, I got a little carried away. I said yes... a lot. To a lot of things. Over and over. It was awesome - I got some new opportunities at work and I tried new crafts and new things. And I didn't finish all of them, which is okay! But I got really distracted, and I found myself feeling like I wasn't actually doing anything, and that was less okay.

Follow through is hard, but it's necessary.

To that end, I'm limiting myself to two of the many, many challenges that start at the beginning of the calendar year. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I have no writing goal or commitment. I gave myself permission to stop banging my head against the wall after NaNo and I haven't figured out what to pick back up yet.

Instead on the storytelling front, my only commitment will be #BeatTheBacklist. I've got a ton of books in my ebook libraries that I haven't read yet, including some magic books I very much want to get to, as well as a fair-sized stack of physical (mostly craft) books just waiting to be read. I'm hoping for a book a week from the TBR Swamp, and we'll see as we go if that needs to be adjusted up or down. (Maybe I'll do short reviews here even! We'll see.)

The only other thing I'm taking on is a meditation/shadow work course Tommie Kelly of Adventures in Woo Woo is offering through his Patreon. Meditation is definitely a thing I benefited from when I was doing it regularly, but I've let it lapse, so this is as good a reminder as any to rebuild that habit. I did a bit of guided meditation looking for someone to be a guide and got myself led to Luke Skywalker, thanks astral plane, so clearly there's work to be done.

Keeping it simple, and doing my best to make it work, are the plan for this year.