New Year’s Goals 2009

Last year, around this time, I posted my writing goals for 2009.  When I was thinking about my year-end review, I was cringing internally, afraid that I totally failed at some (or all) of my goals.  After a little review, I think I actually did alright. There’s room for improvement, as always, but I think I tried with many of my goals.

Below were my goals for 2008:

1) Work on getting my manuscript published.

I almost worked on this one, but didn’t quite get there.  I reformatted the manuscript and edited it one more time, culling a few poems, all in anticipation for a publisher’s contest.  Then, through the magic of online documents, lost all of the edits. Then, I got frustrated and didn’t work on it again. I know that sounds totally sad and lazy, but that’s the sad-lazy truth.

2) Work on getting poems published.

I actually did this — and succeeded!  I had a poem published in qartrsiluni, another in Postal Poetry, and then have 2 coming out soon.  Yay me.

3) Work on getting articles published.

I actually minimized my article output, because I was finding it too grueling. So, I quit writing for the Uptown Neighborhood News, but maintained my contributions to Read Write Poem.  I think I’ll stick with RWP this year, since that’ s the level of reviewing I can handle right now.

4) Write and revise poetry consistently.

I guess it depends on how one defines “consistently”.  I was consistently inconsistent, if that makes any sense.  I participated in NaPoWriMo, so I had lots of poems through the month of April, but I was hit and
miss the rest of the year.  But I was writing and revising almost every month this year.

5) Maintain my blog and my journal for the year.

Yep, again sort of. I am holding release of the next issue of Asphalt Sky, pending some replies from contributors.  I expect it to come out soon, I swear.  But I maintained this blog consistently all year. 

6) Read books that will feed my writing practice.

This one, I definitely did.  I read some very good poetry, nonfiction, and fiction this year.  I will read more next year.

It’s so much more fun to make goals, then to review those old goals, right? So, onto 2009. 

On Friday, I was listening to a Science Friday story on New Year’s Resolutions and apparently the trick to succeeding is to partner with someone who has similar goals.  Therefore, this year I’m limiting the number of goals that I have, so I can really focus on them over the year and I’m partnering with my husband so that we remain accountable to our writing goals. 

With that in mind, here are all of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2009:

1. Write 3 poems per month
2. Eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and less processed foods.
3. Be kinder to myself.

I selected 3 poems a month because I would like to get back into the swing of doing RWP prompts, especially since I help to write some of them.  In shooting for 3 poems per month, I can try to write one poem per week and have one week grace. 

I chose eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and less processed foods because I constantly struggle with gaining and losing the same 5-7 pounds over and over.  I think if I focus more on healthy food intake and moving my body (which I’m pretty consistent with already, yay Wii Fit!), I can develop a more balanced relationship with my body.

I chose being kinder to myself  because I can be pretty rigid and hard on myself. I would like to choose this year to be more gentle, especially when I fail or exhibit flaws.

So, there are the goals for 2009. I’ll track my poem progress on a separate page on this blog, but I’ll track my veggies and self-talk privately. You really don’t want to know if I’m eating my greens, right?