So it’s a new year! And just like in 2014, I’ve continued my Novel Writing Journey. My goal for 2015 is a little different than last year’s because I’m not limiting myself to one chapter per month but rather setting out to finish the first (very rough) draft of the novel. I’m afraid of this task, but I am urged on by my intense desire to finish the draft and come away from 2015 with a little more substantial proof of my hard work. However, after this first month of writing, I’m realizing I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Not just with my novel writing goal but perhaps ALL my goals. I’m afraid I’ve given myself too many passion projects.
You see there was a time, maybe two or three years ago when I wasn’t doing anything for myself. I was barely hanging on just going to school and dealing with all my college responsibilities. And last year especially, I made the decision to start adding in fun things and making them goals so that I could feel vindicated in taking time out of my busy schedule to do them. And it worked! Somehow I was able to do all the stressful “life” things from before AND add in these fun goals and accomplish them both without a time machine! It’s amazing! It’s a miracle! Hallelujah!
I also feel like it’s increased my self-esteem because I can look back and say “Hey I did these things that I never thought I’d be able to do without giving up something else,” and yet here I am having done them! Hooray! The more things I accomplish—especially those activities which I feel contribute to my creativity and intelligence and overall health—the better I feel about myself. I’m a rockstar and a superhero!
But now, I’m feeling the strain of adding all these new and fun goals to my plate. I mean, at this point, it really does feel like there’s physically not enough time to do them all. Before I felt like I couldn’t do fun things because I was too exhausted. But now when I’m exhausted I still make time, but the time that I’m making I still have to make decisions between which of those goals I’m going to work on. And as I make these decisions I realize that in order to successfully accomplish my goals I need to be working on several of those goals at once. (Now is when the need for a Time Turner comes in. I always need a Time Turner).
So now I’m facing some tough decisions at the beginning of 2015. I started out with high hopes for continuing old goals and adding new ones, but I’m finding it doesn’t look feasible on a long-term scale. So what do I do? I don’t want to give some of them up. I picked each goal for a specific reason. For the way it makes me feel or how it might help me in my career or influence my future. I can’t just abandon a few without feeling a significant blow to my self-esteem. So what happens as I step into a new month with more demands set on me? How can I power through and still feel like I’m helping myself rather then hurting? How can the immediate reward from working toward these individual goals be enough of an incentive to continue when I’m feeling exhausted and used up?
How do I keep going when I’ve set too many goals and I didn’t even know that was possible? Who knew you could have too many goals?
i IMAGINE (blank) 
