January 2015: Goals in Review

I really can’t believe that January is over already. Guys, seriously…where the hell did the month go? I’d almost swear that I was just taking the Christmas decorations down, and here I am coming at you with my first monthly goals update. It’s insanity, I’m tellin’ ya.

So how was the month? Let’s take a look.

Goal #1: Take care of myself more.

Well, right off the bat, I can’t in good conscience claim that I ate well or forced myself to do any kind of exercise, but of course those things aren’t really the staples of this particular goal. I said I was going to relax and take care of myself a little more, and so far I’ve been doing okay. I’ve been getting stuff done that needs doing, but I’ve also been taking the time to play games and watch shows, and I’ve been taking tons of baths because they’re so relaxing. I’ve also been taking a little time to play with beauty products and cosmetics simply because it’s fun and makes me feel like I glow a little, and just today I attended a “tea party” (think “Tupperware” party, but for loose-leaf tea) which is actually unusual for me because I don’t usually leap toward social events. So yeah, I guess you could say that it’s been a pretty decent month for “taking care of myself”.

Goal #2: Continue to build my readership/viewership.

I’ve been pretty busy with other things this month, so I haven’t been working on this particular goal as much as I probably should have, but things aren’t all bad. I’ve noticed a handful of new followers on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and the blog, so that’s all great. Book sales, however, may as well be considered dead in the water for the past two months. To help rectify this I’ve set up a “Kindle Countdown Deal” for the second week of February, so if you haven’t read “Nowhere to Hide” yet, you might want to check it out then. I’ll post more info on that closer to the start of the deal. 🙂

Goal #3: Write. Write a lot.

On the writing front I’m a bit disappointed in myself because I have done little-to-no fiction writing this entire month. I did write a small piece for the Writer’s Digest Short-Short Story Contest, but that was only responsible for 1500 words. I had hoped to get some work done on “The Other World”, but I had so many handwritten pages that had to be transcribed that I never got around to writing anything new (luckily that’s finished now, so I can get to the good stuff). Instead, all my new writing for the month of January was comprised from blog posts and a couple of interviews that I did for other sites. That said, the total word count was nothing to scoff at. I ended up writing 20,846 words, which works out to an average of 672 words per day. Not too shabby at all, I think, but I’m hoping to bump that total by at least 100 words a day in February. Think I can do it? Come back at the end of February and find out!