One of my goals for this year is to get healthy. Or at least healthier. The last few years I’ve put on a lot of weight and I’m to the point—or past the point really— where it’s time to do something about it. This is going to mean making changes in my daily habits. I’m going to have to work less and figure out way to move more. I used to do an hour of yoga every morning before I went to work, but as I took on more clients and my work day became busier yoga was one of the things that fell to the side.

As did breakfast and lunch most days. 

And while I eat healthy food, eating one meal a day hasn’t helped anything because by the time I finally eat I’m starving and it’s late at night (usually around 9-10pm) which isn’t good for you either. So not eating processed foods, fast foods, or desserts doesn’t really matter.

Part of me getting healthier is going to be finding a better work/life balance. When you work from home it’s hard to justify taking that time off or not spending that extra hour to finish that project even though you’ve already put in nine hours today. 

Or at least it is for me. 

It’s really easy to go ahead and work for a few hours on Saturday or Sunday, which then turns into a full eight hours and before you know it you haven’t had a single day off in a month.

This year, I’m planning time off, taking weekends off, and getting out of the house more. I’ve had to be more selective of what projects I take on and what clients I work with, which means less money at the moment, but in the long term I believe it will be beneficial.

I’m also making time for me to write again, something, that like the yoga, fell to the side when other things started taking more time. After working all day I was too exhausted to even think about writing.

We are also planning to move. Hubby and I have talked a lot about living a simpler life and this is the year when we’re going to stop talking about it and do it. Our house isn’t huge by any means, but it’s still more house than we really need. We’ve decided that we want less stuff and more experiences. We’d rather have a smaller house with only the things we need so we can use the money that we save to travel, to go to shows, to have adventures, to build memories. We’re in the prime of our lives so why not enjoy these things while we can. When we’re old an gray (or in my case grayer) we can sit on our porch and reminisce about all of the things we’ve done.

And the other big change for this year… my writing career. Or more accurately, making the decision to publish and give this whole thing a go. Several years ago, I sold a few books to a publisher. Those books were published under a different pen name and were in a different genre. My experience with that publisher made me never want to go through it again. I fulfilled my contracts and then I walked away from publishing. I never stopped writing, I just wasn’t going to publish again.

Then I started paying attention to self-publishers and what they were doing. And I started doing research and learning just how much I DIDN’T know about publishing and running a business. For the last few years, I’ve worked hard to learn everything I can about publishing and I’ve honed my skills. But it wasn’t until something happened that made me take a good hard look at things, that I made the decision to give this writing thing another shot. Only this time around, I will have complete control. I know how to do things right. I have a business plan and I know what my short term and long term goals are for my writing. I have realistic expectations. And, I have the skills to produce the best products that I can.

There are a lot of changes happening and change can be scary (and I admit I’m scared), but it can also be exhilarating. At the moment, I’d say I’m equal parts scared and exhilarated, but I’m trying hard to focus on the latter. I’m choosing to stay positive and believe that everything will work out the way it’s meant to, even if that means failure. Sometimes, the only thing we can do it be brave and move forward.