No more excuses in 2014

Bring it on 2014!

Another year has come and gone with last year's resolutions forgotten by most of us. But no matter how quickly I abandoned my resolutions from last year, I continue to make them year after year. Usually I vow to work out and eat better, which I can keep up for a month before slowly falling off the proverbial wagon.
But I figure this year I will go big or go home! My New Year's resolution is NO MORE EXCUSES. This will be the most difficult resolution I've ever taken on because I'm really good at coming up with a good excuse for anything and everything. I know I'm getting too old to make excuses for not living my most productive life — it's just plain laziness.

No more procrastination

There's no reason why I can't get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning to work out — I'm usually awake anyway refusing to get out of bed. There's no reason I can't eat healthier throughout the day.
Procrastination is my worst downfall. I wait until the last minute to take care of things in my life because they might be difficult or because I'm scared of the outcome.
I don't want to get insurance because it's complicated and expensive, I don't want to go to the dentist because the hygienist might make me feel bad about not flossing or for not visiting more often and who wants to deal with those pesky student loans anyway?
I want to be more proactive at work. I want to plan out my month, my weeks and my days to be more productive and not put off phone calls for tomorrow that can be made today (even if it's the last person I want to talk to).
I want to be able to wash my dishes as I use them, wash my clothes instead of letting them pile up in the floor and straighten up my room every day.
I want to be more involved in my community. Do that end, I have signed up to be the publicity chairperson for Haywood County's Relay for Life in May. This will give me a chance to help a grew cause, get involved and meet people in the community and to use my writing/marketing/PR skills for something I truly care about.

Write, write and write some more!

While all of those things are important to tackle head on, it's one of my most enjoyable priorities that I feel I placed on the back burner in 2013. I love writing in many capacities whether it's writing breaking news stories, features for the Guide, blogging or reading others' writings. But when you write all day professionally, sometimes it's hard to come home and find inspiration to write for yourself.
Again, I have no excuse. Writing is my life, it's my therapy and I need to do more of it. I have stories in my head that need to make it to paper. Writing is what makes us better writers and I resolve to finish my first novel this year. It's something I've been working on off and on since 2008. I get excited about it for a while and then I won't work on it for months at a time because I'm too busy or because I started working on another story.

I'm going to write at least a page a day to get it done. I'm not that far away with about 24,000 words under my belt. I need to remember that finishing it doesn't mean it is complete. But I can't start revising and making it better until the story is complete.  As Ernest Hemingway said, "The hardest thing about writing a novel is finishing it."
I thought I was almost done when I let a friend read it to give me feedback. Her feedback made me rethink my entire ending, which means a good deal of the story has to change. Also, I chose to write it in first person when I began, but now I don't like that so I'm changing it to third person — another big transition.

Finding inspiration

Interviewing author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker Nadia Dean for this week’s Guide gave me some inspiration to take on more this year. She had a story she knew she had to tell and that’s exactly what she’s done.

Her historical narrative on the Cherokee War of 1776, “A Demand of Blood,” shines a light on an untold part of our history and the people who shaped our country. And it took her eight years to complete because of all the research she had to conduct first.
The story also inspired her to write music again. She composed an entire soundtrack of music to go with the story and received grants to adapt the story into a 53-minute film as well as a stage adaption centered around one of her main characters in the book.
I have no doubt Dean’s book would make an incredible movie in the future so be sure to read the book first! It just goes to show that you just never know where a good story will take you. I believe in my story, which also has a lot of historical importance and requires research like Dean's book. However, I've got it easy because plenty has been written on my topic, unlike the Cherokee War.
But I know if I can do all these things I will be a happier, more fulfilled person in the years to come and that is why we keep making resolutions year after year.

So I wish everyone luck in sticking with their resolutions however trying they may be. I have a feeling it's going to be a good year.