Tuesday 16th January 2018

I’m definitely feeling a lot better today.  I’ve been feeling a lot calmer and my anxiety has died down a lot.
It’s left me feeling exhausted.  Having felt like I’ve drunk too many energy drinks the last few days, I now feel like I want to sleep.  Given that I’ve not been sleeping well at night for the last week, it’s no wonder I feel so fatigued.
So tonight I just had a night in on my own in my Wookie onesie with movies and Netflix.  So sue me.  I somehow managed to generate a few ideas for Shade Knight books from The Fate of the Furious
Given Book 1 is with my agent and the first draft of book 2 is already with my beta readers  I have very little to do right now.
I know that many people make their plans for the year in December and then start enacting them in January.  I’m a little different.  I always come up with a theme for the year (this year is the year of priorities) and then in January that seems to manifest itself in to some year long goals.
Last year’s Year of the Offensive didn’t start to see things happening until around this time, and even a few year’s back when I started actively improving my health, it was February before I got that going.
I’m not sure what this year’s goals are.  All I know is that the theme is there to remind me that sometimes I need to make choices and shouldn’t be afraid of choosing one thing over another.  I worry that will make me lazy, but last year left me so mentally exhausted I can track back my recent anxiety attack all the way back to late November / early December.
In the gym I train for strength specific for my fencing.  It’s certainly helped me.  Even though my Xmas break has left my cardio pretty bad, my strength is good.  Having been incredibly fat, I would like a six pack.  It’s not so much the vanity of it as the challenge.  I keep forgetting that the muscle is there, it’s just the body fat that covers it.
So I’m considering the idea of spending the next six months working on body fat rather than just strength.  They are connected so it’s not like I would lose my strength as a result.  And then moving into tournament season in the second half of the year, I could switch back to strength.
It’s just an idea right now, but I need to switch around some goals to keep them fresh, and more importantly, keep me motivated.
That really just leaves swordfighting and writing goals for the year.
With swordfighting, I’m tempted to have none, to make this a year where I’m quiet.  I realise that my tournament disappointment played a big part of my mental health over the past 6 weeks, and as a result, I’m less enthused with the swordfighting right now.  So perhaps I’ll leave it a month and then go from there.
And with the writing, I’m in limbo.  Do I write the first draft of something new?  Do I edit something I have sitting around in first draft?  Or do I wait for people to get back to me on various Shade Knight books and then take actions based on their response?  I know I need to recharge after finishing book 2 edits, so perhaps I’ll use the next few weeks to think about what I want to do next rather than try and rush it.
I suspect that in a month’s time I’ll have much more concrete plans.  But for now, I’m just happy to chill.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels.  Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.

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Past Years: 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive