Welp. That didn’t go at all as expected. Womp womp.

Alright, so last time you heard from me, I had a pretty “straightforward” plan. Week One – post on social media. Week Two – get dressed up. Week Three – potty train my daughter. Week Four – write like Stephen King challenge.

Due to some scheduling stuff, I suddenly had a very open week that first week of January. And I was like…

Hear me out.

What if I switched things around so I could potty train my daughter that first lighter week instead? Push everything else back. 

So I did. And that went fine.

Obviously, it’s a loooooong process but I got her successfully used to potty time, which is great. 

The next week was going to be posting on social. And the week after that, “posting on social media “getting gorgeous every day”. But two days before, I was like…

Hear me out.

Why would I post on social media and THEN get gorgeous? Wouldn’t it be better to be all gorgeous for social media?? Why not combine those goals into one single week?

So I combined them. And that went fine.

The dressing up was meh. I was under the impression that I would be excited to dress up in January because it’s finally cold enough in Arizona to wear cute fall clothes. But what really happened was the cold just made me want to wear cozy leggings and wrap myself in a hoodie. 

Also, I switch out my clothes every month, and the January selection was a bit uninspired. The collection included a stained jumper with a broken snap, the striped shirt that made me look rolly polly in my 100 pages photo, and a shirt that I’ve had for LITERALLY 20 YEARS. So I just really didn’t feel like dressing up, and I didn’t. I’m sorry, okay.

But the social media really surprised me.

What I found out was… I genuinely enjoyed it. The parts I had been worried about (like editing videos for example), I actually had so much fun doing! And it made me realize something that *should* have been obvious but hadn’t… That I can make and post videos just for myself. For fun. Not for platform building or marketing or trying to entertain anyone else. I could do it because it’s a fun time and that’s it. 

So cool news, I’m actually going to regularly start making videos now. But not NOW now. Like this summer now. I’m trying to get a book ready to query so I’m really swamped with edits atm. But you know… Coming this June or July. But if you want, here’s one of the videos I made during my week challenge. (It’s me dyeing my hair purple lol.)

So the last challenge was to do this Stephen King thing, where I write 2k words and then immediately edit them.

The night before, I was lying in bed wondering… Does he really do his edits like that? And I Googled Stephen King’s editing process.

AND NO. HE DOES NOT.

Why I believed he did this with all my heart is beyond me dude. I don’t even know where that misbelief came from. But Stephen King does not edit his work same day, in fact, he “leaves it in a drawer for six weeks” so he can look at it with fresh eyes. Gash dude. So I was like…

Hear me out again.

Why don’t I do the 2k writing, but instead of immediately editing the fresh stuff, I work on this novel that I’m trying to query.

So I did that. And I’m glad I did that.

Moral of the story?? Be flexible with the goals you set, I guess. And/or actually think through your goals so you don’t have to change every single one of them the night before.

So I did this challenge three years ago (wow, that long already????). Instead of a traditional New Year’s resolution which is expected to carry through the entire year, I picked four different goals and then tried them for ONE SINGLE WEEK in January.

Here, I’ll repost the meme I made last time haha.

Even though I only made my goals a week-long challenge for myself, I actually ended up making genuine positive changes in my life that I still uphold to this day! Last time, my goals were pretty sensible. I spent a week waking up earlier, cutting sugar, getting outside, and reading more often. Okay, this time my week goals are a bit more weirdo. BUT HANG IN THERE WITH ME, OKAY. I really do believe these things could benefit me! Or not. Honestly. Either way, I’ll hopefully find out if I try it for a week.

WEEK ONE: POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA EVERY DAY

I bet there are a lot of people making resolutions to get off social media lol. Soooo… I’m bad at this. I have a feeling that I could make fun and engaging content. But I just never do. I never share stuff about my life or writing or when my blogs come out or ANYTHING. So I’m going to try it out for a week and see how I feel. NOT COMMITTING TO NOTHIN’. But if it feels manageable, then maybe I could go for more of a social media presence.

Not to overshare, but posting to social media inexplicably terrifies me. Like I have a desire to do it. I desperately want attention, and I daydream about getting attention, but I also feel getting attention is bad?? Like other people/things deserve more attention than me. So it seems like a silly resolution, but it is important to me to reclaim some space in this world… Thanks… I’ll send you payment for the therapy session later.

WEEK TWO: GET GORGEOUS EVERY SINGLE DAY

Yeah so. I just never do this anymore. I’m home all day, taking care of little kids, and taking the time to do it feels impossible some days. So I’m going to try to dress up. Just out of curiosity. Like… does it even really matter? Does it make a difference or not?

WEEK THREE: POTTY TRAIN MY DAUGHTER

Exactly what it sounds like. I tried and failed several months ago, but she’s way more ready for it now. So I’ll take the whole week to extensively potty train.

WEEK FOUR: WRITE LIKE STEVEN KING

I don’t mean prose or technique. I’m talking about his daily routine. Specifically, that he writes two thousand words and then immediately edits them same day. That freaks me out! Not the 2k words daily but the EDITING STRAIGHT AFTER. My routine is to sloppily draft the entire book and then big-picture-edit it into oblivion until I’ve re-written the book five hundred times. I have such an aversion to the idea of cleaning up a chapter that’ll have to be removed or changed anyway. This must be a confidence thing. Or an “I already have a professional developmental editor” thing. I think I’m at a point in my craft where I can try doing this. Because to have a fairly clean first draft would be euphoria to me.

So those are my challenges!! I’ll let you know next month how they all go!