It will be the year of....

Prompt:  It will be the year of....

It is now the 2016. With 2015 behind me, this will be the year of many great things. I have so much planned for myself. The hardest part will be finding the motivation and energy to do them. I will be using many tools to help me keep on track to do what I have planned.

I am not setting any New Year's Resolutions. Nope, not even one. This year I am setting New Life Habits! I never kept any resolutions made before. I don't see this year being any different. So with that in mind, I changed it to something that sounds not only fun but long lasting. That's what it is supposed to be isn't it? If it isn't fun at least a tiny bit, we won't do it. So if you make any resolutions or New Life Habits, find ways to make them fun so you stick to them.

I plan on keeping a calendar for each of my New Life Habits. Each day that I complete the habit, I will mark it on the calendar that it has been done. This is great motivation for me and many people. To see how many days I can go in a row pushes me on to do just one more day every day. Will I mess up and miss a day? Sure. I'm only human after all. I will fall on my face but the most important thing I can do is get up and do better the next day. You only fail if you stop trying.

My New Life Habits are to:

1. Write daily at least 750 words. I plan on making this number more but I use a website https://750words.com to keep up my motivation so that is the habit amount for now.

2. Drink enough water every day. Most places I checked recommend the 8 8oz glasses of water per day making it 2 quarts. So I have a one quart drink bottle. Just fill and drink twice and done!

3. Walk one mile on the treadmill daily. This one is going to be a challenge for me. I plan on allowing myself to split the mile up throughout the day if needed. As long as I get that one mile in, it's all good.

4. No added sugar.  This one by far is going to be the hardest new life habit of all. I read that sugar is 8x as addictive as cocaine! So going off sugar is detoxing. Definitely a challenge to be had. Sugar can be found added to so many things, including things you would never guess had sugar in them. I am going to have to be very careful with what I eat so plan on eating real food instead of things that are processed.  Wish me luck on this one please. I am going to need it. 

5. Study something for at least 30 minutes a day. With all the free online classes available on the internet, this one should be easy to do. The hardest part will be finding the motivation and sticking to a time to do it. I will not let the procrastination monster win!

6. Do a craft, draw, or be creative daily. This will include things like crocheting, sewing, drawing, painting, etc.  Anything that is being creative fits.

7. Clean for at least one hour daily. I moved into my apartment on October 1st and still am not settled. Not even close to be honest. I find the entire process very overwhelming. So my new life habit for this is to break the hour down into four 15 minute sessions of cleaning if a straight hour becomes too much to do at one time. Once I get things in proper order (proper according to whom i am not sure) I may not even need an entire hour to clean every day. For right now, I do and it is a reachable habit.

This seems like quite a lot of things to be working on at the same time. If I get overwhelmed with how many new life habits I have on my plate, then I will cut some out to save for another day to start. Not a big deal to drop one or two if needed as long as I don't stop doing all of them.

I plan on posting to my blog at least once daily. It may be a short story, a journal entry (kind of like this one), a poem, or even some kind of article. Writing articles will be a challenge for me as I am normally a fiction writer. So if any of you have any article ideas for me please let me know by leaving a comment below. Thank you in advance.

I started the new year off getting up a couple hours later than planned. That isn't going to stop me from getting things done that I need and want to get done though. This will be my year because I plan on making it my year. This is my year to shine in what ever way possible.

I do so love comments. So please if you are so inclined, please leave comments for me about what you like or even didn't like (just don't be mean about it). I write these for myself but it always nice to hear what others think. Give a post a critique if you'd like. I don't mind. Comments help my writing process grow as well. It is like the dew on the delicate flowers.

If you have anything you would like me to try writing either fiction or non-fiction, please let me know that in the comments as well. I am always open to trying new things with my writing and it will help my skills grow too.