Bang! Fireworks explode louder than a starter’s gun, and I panic. Am I ready? Have I compiled my New Year’s Resolutions, and do I stand any chance of completing them? Or will I trip, fall, and gasping for breath, collapse on the ground before I reach the quarter-mile mark?  I bet some won’t make it off the blocks. They say most people abandon them by February. I suspect the problem lies in only preparing for a 100-meter dash instead of the marathon our self-improvement laundry list demands.

My checklist is short, simple, and stacked to ensure victory. I also have a one or two-word annual theme. My mantra for 2020 is “success.” I developed my resolutions by asking a single question–How can I find success this week? My writing goal is to write 1,000 words each week. Not 52,000 words this year. My brain sees the big number, and immediately says, “no.” But 1,000 words? Sure, it is doable in either a marathon sitting or spread across a few days.

I rely on a habit and a little encouragement from my friends. Every Sunday afternoon, I schedule the coming week’s tasks. Can I walk five miles, lose one pound, plan a healthy meal, spend less money, transfer $50 to my savings account, organize a closet, or read one chapter in a book?  Chances are, if I start, I will do more than I planned, multiplied by fifty-two. That’s how we win marathons.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The countdown has begun. Only hours remain before we say goodbye to the current year, and mark another decade’s passing.  Every year presents us with highs and lows that sometimes create more screams than the newest roller-coaster ride. The universe packages other years with enough melodrama, theatrics, hysterical tears, and lusty infatuations that even telenovelas seem positively boring.

I am overcome with excitement and anticipation of a clean slate. 2020 holds promise, potential, and bright shiny possibilities, with an equal guarantee of hard work, difficult decisions, and unexpected obstacles. I listen to the words of the Dalai Lama, when he says, “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”

With optimism, we can navigate barriers, trust ourselves to make sound selections, and realize there is a reward for perseverance. Hope and strength are its allies. Pessimism is shrouded with doubt, fear, and gloomy desperation. They evaporate when you turn toward the sun and insist on placing one foot in front of the other. Those around you can’t help but catch your enthusiasm.

I raise my glass, thank 2019 for the lessons it taught me, and meet 2020, face to face, with a smile. I wish you a year loaded with inspiration, achievements, health, and happiness.

How will you greet the New Year?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

It appears innocent and unassuming, fragile, thin, and benign. As a popular culture icon, it is formidable. It induces anxiety, fear, panic, and feelings of inadequacy.  The blank page reduces creatives to blithering idiots, incapable of action. Alaa Al-Aswany expresses it well in the following video when he says writing is the “conflict between what you want to say and what you could say.”

Perhaps we should shift our thinking, channeling Michelangelo when he said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there; I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Maybe our story is there, fully written, and waiting for us to release it.

Staring into 2020, with its unlimited possibilities, we can find ourselves frozen, afraid to move. Any good writer holds their story’s plot in their mind before they face the blank page. Likewise, goals serve as the structure for our lives as we take bold strides forward. Step by step, we advance, aware only of an ephemeral dream, an imagined destination, and an image of what we are meant to be.

What path will your goals create in the new year?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

This quote made me laugh. Who among us has mastered time? Is there a secret society of time masters, hoarding their magical ways? We study time management techniques, perform time audits, eat frogs, create to-do lists, apply the 80-20 rule, use batch tasking, set S.M.A.R.T. goals, learn to say “no” and do more by doing less. Even with those tools, we fail.

We stand on the brink of a new decade, and Tony says we underestimate what we can accomplish in the space of ten years. It seems impossible, but when I look backward toward 2010, I am amazed by the path that brought me here, and how different my life is today. So, as I sit to plot and plan my intentions for 2020, I wonder if I dare to dream bigger and imagine where I might be when I turn the calendar to welcome 2030. How much more may I realize if I broaden my event horizon? Will my progress exceed light speed?

There is a shift in my normal goal setting exercise. A mere 365 days is too short. I have always complete five- and ten-year targets. While I finished them, they were cursory, never fully formed, or completely embraced. This year, their significance has surpassed my annual ambitions, and I can’t wait to see where this alteration leads me.

How do you master time?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Being a writer, I pay attention to comments, snippets of conversations, and uncensored chatter. I wouldn’t call it eavesdropping exactly, but when I am working in coffee shops and libraries, I occasionally overhear interesting remarks. Many discussions pertain to work and follow a predictable pattern. A trained ear will seek the gems that ignite reflection and understanding. A recent orator at an adjoining table, pulled me from my writing, as she whined, recounting how bored she was as if it was a circumstance to avoid.

I am never bored. Activities, responsibilities, deadlines, and never-ending thoughts fill my days. Contrary to most who wish to dodge periods of idleness at any cost, I pursue it. Buried in a state people regard as undesirable, I find a silence where time expands, and clarity pushes chaos and confusion from my mind. Sitting without doing the world doesn’t perceive activity or productivity. I don’t consider it boring. It is the portal to my creativity and the stimulus for inspiration. This is where my muse lives and speaks to me.

This week I am setting goals for 2020. I have discovered this lull between Christmas and New Year celebrations is a great time to pursue boredom, discover my path, and devise a plan to achieve my fondest desires.

Do you shun boredom?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer