Every New Year, people strive to make a new person out of themselves.. And why? Because celebrating a new year is about celebrating life and renewal. You have a whole year laid out in front of you, in which you can do ANYTHING. You can write a book, or you can write 1,000 words a day like I'm doing. You can get married, you could get pregnant and have a baby, you could get divorced, you could make new friends, take up a new sport. There are endless possibilities, which makes the new year such an excellent time to try to do something to better yourself and your life; to make you happy.
This new year, I started out with new hair, thanks to my Mom. She bought me a blonde wig for Christmas that took me out of my comfort zone. For a liberal, I'm very conservative. I have always dressed demurely, and I've been comfortable with my own style, but this one was a shocker. I think it changes my whole look, and probably for the better based on all the compliments I've received. Here's a selfie:
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I'm one of those people, who in a snap of my fingers, can change the way I look: alopecia has made me lucky in that respect. But sometimes, when you're trying to achieve goals, you do need to change it up. You need to, not necessarily change your hair, but to change what you're doing in order to achieve your goals: be that a mental change, a physical change or an emotional change.
I'm sure you've heard the definition of insanity about doing the same thing and expecting different results (it's all over the internet, just type it in and observe): it just doesn't work. Yet so many of us do that. We get stuck in our comfort zone, our routine, and we do the same thing over and over and then we berate ourselves with negativity wondering why we can't:get published, get that closet cleaned, be a better mom; you name it! And then we have the tendency to wonder why we can't achieve our goals, when we never really tried in the first place. Such is human nature.
This year, try something different. Define your goals, then make a game plan to achieve them. Make your goals quantifiable so you can measure whether you are achieving them. For example, I will edit for 30 minutes a day is a much better goal then the overwhelming, "Edit," which has no conceivable beginning, middle or end, and to me looks like plain torture! Don't give up if you fail the first time. Use that failure to help you learn what to do next time. Failure is often the key to success, if you persevere, because it's like a teaching: telling you what you did wrong and guiding you towards success.
If you don't like the way one wig looks, then try on another.
*This post was inspired by a wonderful chat with @10MinNovelists on how to make definable goals and stick with them.
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