Reading your blogs I see that the jury is still out on new years resolutions, from those of you who make resolutions and stick to them and accomplish enough to make the rest of us feel violently ill, to those of you who boycott resolutions and seem to have your life turn out just fine.
Me, I'm always FULL of resolutions. I make them daily and abandon them or forget about them just as often. I love resolutions. Resolutions make me feel energized and virtuous.
One year, feeling optimistically Jewish, I decided that gossip was a sin and that I no longer wanted any part of it. That lasted about 20 minutes, until I turned on the tv to Talk Soup and laughed my ass off.
Another year, feeling insufficiently Jewish, I wanted to celebrate shabbath on Friday nights. Pfff... I did not do it even once out of 52 weeks, but what I did feel was a sinking feeling of guilt every Friday. So I guess I got to feel Jewish in my own twisted way.
Last year I was more successful. I was resolute to fight clutter, because a cluttered space also clutters the mind. I read Getting Things Done (known to the obsessive-compulsives of the world as GTD.) That book gave me an organizational hard-on. I became manic about filing, cleaning and organizing until it was pointed out to me that I was doing nothing much else but file, clean, and organize. My countertops were minimalist while my productivity was in spiraling decline. I finally became disenchanted with GTD when I reached the point of GND (or Getting Nothing Done.)
Still, something good came out of it. A year later, I no longer let piles happen. Piles are the enemy. Piles are always in the back of your mind. Don't argue with me, you know it's the truth. My desk is now a model of minimalism. My 2009 papers are all filed and boxed by day 2 of Jan 2010. And I have given tons of crap away, trying to focus on keeping only what I need (though boundaries get blurred: for example, tough I technically don't need my husband's clothes, it appears they must be kept for the sake of the marriage.)
To celebrate my successes, today I went shopping with my friends and... ahem... got more stuff. But at Anthropology so it's okay, right?
A cute little butter dish: (one of my minor new year's resolutions is to eat more butter in 2010.)
...and drink more cocoa and tea and coffee while I stare in wonderment at my absence of piles.
Next year, dare I say it? (Would I jinx it by mentioning it? Will it be one of those resolutions that sticks or on of those that fizzles?) What I'd like to do in 2010 is to self-publish and market one of my novels.
People are self publishing with great results, In fact, many writers have waited for the holy grail of landing a publishing deal, waited two years after that to see their books finally in print, only to see their books be neglected by publishing houses, their revenues eaten away by fees and commissions and they STILL had to write a blog, market the hell out of their books, finance their own book-tours etc.
The publishing industry, just like the art industry has changed. Artists and writers no longer depend upon the golden seal of a few powerful institutions. We are so much freer now, we have so many more possibilities open to us!... and, hmm, well to tell you the truth it also seems that the chances of this novel being published in any traditional ways are thinning faster than the polar ice cap (sorry for the downer simile.)
I've been reading a lot about self-publishing. Learning, and planning. But I do have a tendency to get lost in planning. That and obsessively clearing surfaces. What I need is action. Here's my new year's resolution in a nutshell. LESS TALK AND MORE ACTION.
which starts now... less talk.. see ya.
