A couple years ago, I set a goal to be earning $2,000 a month from my books by the end of 2025.
I haven’t met that goal, and I’m not mad at myself. Here’s why:
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’ve been going through some really rough stuff. Chronic pain that sent me first to my chiropractor, then my doctor, then the ER, and finally a trauma therapist. Trauma therapy. Working my day job more hours than I really want to.
At first, I was really angry at myself that I wasn’t writing through all this. There’s been a push towards healthier lifestyles lately in the public discourse, but the “you have to be doing, being productive, making art even if you’re dying” mentality has been hammered into all of us for so long and from such a young age, it can be hard to push past that and give oneself some grace and time and care.
Thanks capitalism and Catholicism, no one needed their mental health anyway.
But then I realized the progress I’ve made these past two years, dealing with a lot of what’s been holding me back all this time, and I’m good with not reaching my goal. Not yet, anyway.
I’ll tell you something cool I recently learned: Setting goals isn’t about putting yourself under pressure and meeting them at any cost and beating yourself up and giving up if you don’t make it.
It’s about trying, learning, and having your own back whether you succeed or need to adjust.
I had a whole bunch of mental and emotional anguish around a lot of things that I had not been dealing with. Part of trying to get my act together and accomplish a goal with my writing was figuring that out and appropriately dealing with it. I didn’t know that when I set the goal, I had to learn it along the way. But now I know, and I will move the end date of my goal appropriately.
It’s not time to set a new date yet. I still have things to sort through, and no idea how long that will take. Setting a new date will come when it comes. Hell, I might even succeed before I think I’m ready to set a goal date, I don’t know.
Bottom line, I’m here, I’m changing my life in the ways I need to, and I’m doing my best.
I hope anyone following this blog can learn something from what I’m going through.
Happy holidays and a successful New Year.
… comment section recently seemed broken so let’s just try this short message; maybe it’ll work this time.
Happy New Year to you! I hope the comments section isn’t permanently down — I got a notification that they’d be doing some work on my hosting service and the website might not be accessible, I think that should be over now.