Along for the Ride

I can’t believe Round 2 is over and done. Once again I feel like I haven’t made the progress that I wanted to, yet at the same time, my life is full of love, creativity, and fun, so I guess I’m doing something right. Looking at my goals list today makes me wonder, a bit, what in the world I’ve been doing with my time. I feel like in some ways I’m just along for the ride that is life, this year so far. It’s not a bad thing. It makes it challenging to adhere to the plans I’ve set out for myself, yet I’m certainly learning and growing and making progress. And when I look at my calendar, I can see that I have indeed accomplished a lot, even though it might not have been exactly what I planned.

So, onward and upward, eternally!

Here is my more detailed progress report:

2016 Row 80 Round 2 Goals

Draft Heart of the Goddess book. Work on it daily (on weekdays). Finish the first draft (target of 120,000 words) by the end of the Round. I didn’t manage to work on it daily, but I have made a good chunk of progress on the draft. I’m now at about 44000 words. My new plan is to finish the draft by the end of August. I’m excited about this book and have plenty of ideas and material in my head, and some notes on paper. With focus, I can certainly do this.

Re-read draft of Patterns in the Void and make revision notes. Make a plan for writing the revisions during Round 3. I didn’t get to this work at all. I think I have some resistance around revisions, especially on fiction works. I’ll ponder and see where I’m at with it for the next Round.

Continue my craft & business learning. Participate fully in my In Arms Coaching biz program. Read at least 3 books about writing craft and/or making a living as a writer. Check out a couple of writer podcasts. Keep notes on ideas to use, and begin implementing them. The biz coaching program is going super well, and I just signed up for another year. It’s really helpful, and I’ve been diving in fully with the work. I did manage to read my 3 books that I set out to, yet I haven’t looked into the podcasts yet.

Build community for Feline Dreamers through strategic use of video.Send show proposal to Conscious Consumer Network. Do weekly Blab chats, building our audience. Complete at least 2 more videos for Love Alike website. Make promotional videos for our programs. This will all involve writing, in the form of scripts and outlines. We got the proposal approved for Conscious Consumer Network, but didn’t realize that the monthly cost for doing the show would be so high – it doesn’t fit into our budget at this time, so we’ve set it aside. We did make more videos, and the Love Alike project launches next month. We experimented a bit with Blab and other video options, but haven’t done as much as we could. I’ll continue this goal and update it accordingly.

Complete various behind-the-scenes marketing tasks: Add my author name domain to my website(s). Decide if we still want to create weekday Fae Musings e-mails for our Feline Dreamers subscribers, and if yes, do so. Update our freebies for folks who sign up for our Feline Dreamers list. Add new folks to both of our mailing lists. Most of this is still pending. We did add new people to our Feline Dreamers subscriber list, and got back on track with sending them regular newsletters, so that’s good.

De-clutter and organize my life, creating beautiful spaces. Clean and organize my upstairs desk and filing cabinets. Finish our “punch list” for the rest of the downstairs project. Finish de-cluttering and organizing the eaves. Create the photo gallery for the stairwell wall. Haven’t gotten to any of this yet.

Focus on blogging. Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least once per week, Feline Dreamers each month, and on this blog twice per week. Write, edit, and submit monthly guest blog posts for Kind Over Matter. Submit a guest blog proposal to Mike Dooley’s site. Write book reviews for Facing North website. Start and keep a running list of blog post ideas, drafts, and picture ideas. I would say I had moderate success here. This goal will be continued.

Make inspiring art and music. Practice zentangling. Create new scrapbook pages and art journal pages. Take nature photographs to use on my websites and blog posts. Practice drumming regularly. Haven’t done too much of this, yet just this month I’ve been getting back to drumming, which feels good. I have been taking plenty of photos on my trips and hikes.

Enhance my physical health. Devote time to daily exercise, including but not limited to walking, yoga, dancing, and swimming. Stop eating sugar. Eat less in general. Doing moderately well here. Definitely needs some more attention.

Live AUTHENTICally and spiritually in my daily life. Do things I love: write in my journal, read, do yoga, dance, spend time with loved ones, and express my gratitude. Pay attention to my dreams and keep records of them. Set intentions before sleep and upon waking. Meditate and do my chakra clearing daily. Yes. This goal is foremost in my daily schedule, and I feel like I’m living spiritually and tending to my joys and passions. I’m so thankful!