The Writing Journey: 7 Things I’m Celebrating from 2018

One of the rituals I do in December is to take some time to pause and reflect on the past year before putting a plan together for the new one.

Why do I do that? Because as a society, we don’t celebrate our successes nearly enough.

We’re all so very busy. We cross off one thing on our to-do list and three more magically take its place. We’re on a never-ending treadmill, trying to get as much done as we can, and it seems no matter how much we DO accomplish, we’re beating ourselves up for everything we didn’t do.

The problem with that is if we don’t take a moment to pause and breathe and CELEBRATE our successes, did they even happen?

And, if we don’t reward ourselves, how do we stay motivated to keep going?

As the cliché says, life is a journey, not a destination. Which means we need to pause along the way and acknowledge our successes rather than get so hung up on the things that haven’t gotten done or (even worse) we’ve failed at.

What I’ve done for myself is make it a point to pause twice a year at the Solstices — Summer and Winter — to acknowledge and celebrate my successes.

I know we’re still a few weeks out fromWinter Solstice (which is December 21, when daylight is the shortest) so I haven’t “officially” sat down to do this yet, but I already know I have a lot to celebrate this year. I thought I’d post a few things I’ll be celebrating to maybe inspire you to do this same ritual for yourself.

1. I released the first two novels of my very first series: “It Began With a Lie” and “This Happened to Jessica.” Woot! I now have FOUR published books!
2. Both books have gotten raving reviews, which makes me soooo happy.
3. “This Happened to Jessica” is officially my best, most successful book launch yet!
4. But, what I’m most proud of is what these books represent. I had for all intensive purposes, stopped writing fiction for a decade. (There was a brief few months fling where I worked on a novel in the middle of that 10-year stretch, but it didn’t last.) It took me three years to complete the two books, and some of it was painful as I had to relearn writing fiction (those muscles were dreadfully atrophied) but I did it.

(You can read more about my journey back to fiction in my other “The Writing Journeys.”)

5. I got on TV! And, for fiction! Woot!
6. I’m hard at work on the third novel for the “Secrets of Redemption” series, due out spring 2019. (I think it’s called “The Evil That Was Done” but I may change that title.) It makes me very happy to have a fiction project I can sink my teeth into. I always feel better when I’m writing fiction.
7. YOU. I love my readers and I’m so grateful I get to do what I love. Thank you for being on this journey with me.

As great as 2018 was, I’m super excited about 2019 and all the possibilities.

How about you? Want to celebrate with me? Go ahead and post below in the comments so I can celebrate your successes from 2018.

(Oh, and if you’re interested in learning more about my goal-setting, I actually have a book about it called “Love-Based Goals.” It’s part of my “Love-Based Business” series if you want to check it out.