The struggle is real

Speaking of the day job, here I am with my co-workers
as Care Bears for Halloween. 

I was hoping that I would have a big revelation for you today. An unveiling of the new and improved goals for me for the rest of the year.

But, alas, nothing new to report. Argh! I wish I could figure out what is wrong with me, why I have no ambition and get nothing done all day (when I’m not at the day job, that is).

I’m going to cut myself some slack for the past week, as I have been battling a cold. Because I rarely get sick, I just don’t do well when I am coughing and hacking and sneezing and holding a Kleenex to my nose 24/7 as it continuously drips. Maybe I need to get sick more often, so that I know how to handle this. I pretend I’m not sick at all and power through day after day, but psychologically my brain is mush and – well – my body is shot.

But to not beat myself up too much, here are some of the things I did do last week.

  1)    Wrote and posted three blog posts to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles.

  2)    Read and commented on two blog posts by other ROW80 participates.

  3)    Spent a couple hours last night working on my husband’s family tree.

  4)    Sewed two quilt squares.

  5)    I almost forgot the real achievement. I submitted two inspirational reflections to my employers 2020 daily calendar. The deadline was the end of September, but they sent out another email last week that they hadn’t gotten nearly enough submissions and were begging for people to send them something. So I am pretty much a shoe-in for this, but it is still a creative blip that I put out there.

So, moving forward. Let’s just at least try to get something done this week.

  1)    Post three times to my other blog, the Dino Chronicles. I’ve been writing about my recent trip to Kenya, so at least I have a plethora of things to write about.

  2)    Read all of the blog posts that other ROW80 participates post.

  3)    Spend one night – yes, just one night! – writing something, anything on one of my multiple works in progress.

  4)    Spend one night working on my family tree. I had been gung-ho about that last spring, but just haven’t done much since then (kinda like the rest of my life).

That’s it. Baby steps and keeping it simple.

Am I just chicken to get published?
(I realize it's a rooster, but you get it.) 

The other thing I have been thinking long and hard about is my second novel, which has just been sitting in my computer collecting dust and probably even mold by now. I’ve had a few agents turn it down, not sure that traditional publishing is ever going to happen. I’ve been tossing around the idea of just biting the bullet and self-publishing it on Amazon. I might work on that process in the next few weeks, too.

How about you? Have your publishing goals changed? How do you handle that?