resolution update – Manda Kay Writes

The year is almost over. The time for that final push is almost over. Resolutions are about to become failures. Let’s all point and laugh together, shall we?

Or lack thereof – Photo by Breakingpic on Pexels.com

Losing ten pounds: This could still happen, or it could not still happen. The furthest I made it was six. And then I went on vacation basically all the month of October, and it got back up there again. But in the past week, I’ve lost three pounds. So there’s that. Just seven more pounds to go. Ugh. It probably won’t happen. But I’m not about to give up the lifestyle. Not fail, but not win. You feel me?
Keep to writing and cleaning schedule: What I’ve learned from this is that I can indeed keep to a schedule. What I also learned is that when I fill up my schedule so much, when something unexpected happens, I have zero time for it. Then I’m staying up until three in the morning so I can cross off an item. So this past month, I’ve changed things up and given myself less to do every week. House has still stayed clean, and writings have still been written, both plus some. I need to stop expecting so much of myself. Give myself a break, yo. Check in the win category, though.
Take a day every couple of weeks to do absolutely nothing: This has been on the decline by a lot. I can’t pinpoint when exactly it happened, but it’s definitely not there now. Bad job. Fail on all levels.
Go on more dates: Like last time, it’s not in the traditional sense. We spend time together Sunday nights and eat something new and watch tv. HOWEVER! That may soon change come next year. More on that later. 😉 Win, btw.
Do more social networking for writing and less for personal: I rule at this. For the most part. I have everything on a queue, so I do a bunch in a day and then I’m covered for the month. I’ve been working on interacting on posts to get new followers and sell some stories, but it’s still some pretty new territory for me, and honestly a little uncomfortable and pushy-feeling for me. I think once I have something worth pushing, though, I’ll be more apt to do it.
Be more involved with family and keep track of birthdays: It’s been a while since we’ve done a dinner as a family. It’s a mixture of some funky schedules and some tension between certain members. Good ol’ family drama, ya know? But things are finally starting to smooth over, so here soon, it’ll get better. It can only go up from here. As for birthdays, I’m awesome at blowing up phones with nonsensical birthday raps. It’s definitely in the win category.
Pay off credit cards and car loan: Fuuuuuuuuuck. It’s going down. I don’t know if it will be paid off by the end of the year, but it will be close. Both will be close. But ultimately, it is a fail on my part. A big, fat fail. I’m only a little salty about it.
Go out of town to see friends more often just because: Since the last update, I did go up to see them on a random three day weekend I got. It was some much needed bitching time, with some booze and Mexican food in there for good measure. I want more days like this. I’ll call it a stalemate. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t the worst, either.
Take Jax (old grumpo) to good doggo classes: I didn’t do it. I’ve had the entire year and did not once set foot into a good doggo class. HOWEVER. What I did do is have my sister show me how to make him behave. Eh, let me take that back. She showed me how to be assertive with him, how to raise my voice when he’s acting up. Is he the perfect, most well-behaved dog? Of course not. But it has made a difference. He listens better than what he did in the past. Plus, there’s plans for him to meet some other animals in the works to put his listening skills to the test. If I had it my way, we would have done it already, but damn, dude. Everyone is so damn busy. At the end of the day, though, Jax being bossed around by my sister isn’t the same as going to an actual dog obedience class. Another fail.
Take doggos for more walks: Almost every week when it’s not freezing or otherwise crappy outside, we’ve gone for a walk. Sometimes we travel for a nice long walk, but most times I take them separately around the block. Not only does it get more steps in for me, but it’s easier to control them when they are apart, which makes for a nicer walk for all of us. Plus, they are better behaved when they don’t have each other to feed off of. Winner winner.
Declutter digital and physical files: I have the same old file cabinet (you know, because of the credit card thing), but the inside is anything but the same. Folks, it is cleaned out. It is organized. It makes my little neat-freak heart so damn happy. Digital files have kept clean for the most part. I don’t go through them as often as I should, but it wouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get through it all. That’s way better than the thousands it was before. Winning.
Locate my self-esteem: You know what? It comes and goes. It’s like day and night. It’ll pop up and stay for a week or two, then be lost for several days, until I pick it up and dust it off and repeat the process all over again. No, I’ll take that back. What this is about is self-esteem. What I’m talking about is depression. Not the same thing. No, okay, I think I’m better about this for the most part. Most days, I know my worth and I know I’m a hot piece (oh god please don’t take me too serious). But you know what I mean. I know I’m smart and I’m good at what I do (not necessarily writing, yo) and I have good qualities about myself. I’m loving and caring. I’m empathetic. I’m a great listener. And typing this all out feels awkward, so just take my word for it that I know what I’m about. Win.

All in all, it’s not horrible. I’m at 7/12 for resolution success. I don’t think I’ll check in again with this one, but I miiiight let you all know what my plans are for 2020. Ya know. So you can laugh while I fail some more. It’s cool. Builds character.

So. How did your resolutions go?

Close your eyes and think back a hot minute. It’s New Year’s Eve, and we were young. Hopeful. So full of ambitions and ideas. December 31 me was a dumb bitch is what I’m saying. I was looking back on my list I made, and I think I still have a ways to go. Accountability is everything, so let’s go through the failures together, shall we?

I mean, it could be worse. I could be like her. Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com

Lose ten pounds: It’s not that I haven’t been giving it my all, but it’s not that I have been, either. I’ve cut down on food for the most part. I eat more salads. Um…with food. Normal food. I eat a burger and have a salad with it is what I’m saying. I’m down a whopping three pounds, but progress is progress.
Keep to writing and cleaning schedule: For the most part, this has gone well. I have an item a day in each spot, but I have a tendency to skip a day and double up the next to make up for it. I gotta stick to it when it’s there. Otherwise I stress. Stress is not the goal here.
Take a day every couple of weeks to do absolutely nothing: I’ve been scheduling one day a month to do just that. It probably sounds stupid as hell, but doing nothing is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I can’t argue that it’s been good for me, though. I always come back the next day ready to go.
Go on more dates: This has not happened nearly all that much in the traditional sense. We just haven’t had the funds to go out on random dinner dates. HOWEVER: we have spent more time at home cooking together and watching movies together, which is more than what we’ve done in the past where we would spend almost all our free time in separate rooms doing our own thing. Just tonight we watched the last Harry Potter movie and had some magical snacks and laughed our asses off. It was a good time. So I guess what I’m trying to say is while we haven’t gone out on dates, we’ve done what we could with what we have. Check in the win column, I think.
Do more social networking for writing and less for personal: This I have embraced whole-heartedly. I have queues set up both here and on Facebook (which you can follow me here). Instagram has a nice mix of both (link right here). I also set up an account on Booksie, and have already started networking with other authors. This has worked for both my *potential* writing career and my personal life, since social media has always been a source of drama that I don’t want to deal with. So far, so good!
Be more involved with family and keep track of birthdays: This is a win/lose so far this year, and not from lack of trying (excuses, excuses). The win is I have been out to my parents’ house more these past few months than I have all last year and probably the year before combined. Once every month or so, my mother, my sister, and myself get together and have a dinner/movie date, and every time has been great. Most often we watch something scary, and my sister (who is older than me by a decade, I might add) cowers behind a blanket and squeezes my hand until I swear the bones are going to break. It. Is. A. Blast. Family bonding at its finest! Now, where I have failed with this is birthdays. Ready yourself, because here comes the excuses. My mother is my go-to for when birthdays are. I have a planner, she tells me that month who’s birthdays are when (we have a huge family, okay?), I write them down, and then come birthday time, people get a phone call and a gift. I did great. For one birthday. One. Come next few, and no one tells me, as if I’ve known these kids my entire life and should know what day they came into this world! Such bullshit. 😉 Just kidding. But seriously, I need to get better on that stuff. I’ve gotten two gifts after the fact, and nothing looks worse than a great big “Hey sorry I missed your day but here’s a thing maybe you’ll like please love me still?” Pffttt
Pay off credit cards and car loan: God. Damn. It. I had it paid off, okay? I had my credit card paid up and had a zero balance. For a week. A week! And then comes vacation planning for the year, which was NOT cheap, and then parts on my car turned obsolete, and then my car had to go to the shop to put those parts on, and then fuckin…asdfghjkl; Game Grumps were all like “Oh, we gunna go on tour and there’s some VIP tickets out there” and how exactly am I supposed to say no to that??? Long story short: Credit card balance now very much exists. I’m hoping within the next three months I can get it gone again. If I put everything toward it. Hoo-boy.
Go out of town to see friends more often just because: This is another thing that has not happened, and not from lack of want. You know that whole shpeel about the credit cards? It’s largely due to that. But a besties friend trip for next year is in the works, and I do plan on heading to see people twice this year, so???
Take Jax (old grumpo) to good doggo classes: Not yet, but still in the works. The lady I plan to go through has classes every month. When it gets warmer outside, I plan on taking the time to get him on his best behavior. Er…to teach me how to act with him and not let him be the boss, I guess. I think it’s moreso good people classes. Food for thought.
Take doggos for more walks: It’s happening kind of? Weather where I live has not been cooperating, and that’s not just an excuse this time. The littlest one can’t do cold. He refuses to move anywhere but toward the door to go back inside. But we are finally out of winter and into spring, so here soon, it’ll be nothing but pavement and poop bags.
Declutter digital and physical files: I’ve been a pro at this. My email is spectacular, and I’ve taken a little bit of time every few weeks to go through old papers. I plan on going through the entire filing cabinet when I can switch it out for a new one that isn’t broken. Which I’ll get after my credit card is paid off. Ugh finances are so lame.
Locate my self-esteem: Still searching. I am supposed to get my hair done later this week, so maybe after that it’ll pop out and say SURPRISE! But so far…eh. I still need to work on that.

Scrabble tiles make it seem so much more fun. Photo by Breakingpic on Pexels.com

So there you have it. I’m about…eh…fifty fifty. Progress is progress.

Those of you who do the whole New Year New Me bull, how’s it going so far? You crushing those goals? Those goals crushing you? Or are you just floating by doing your best, such as yours truly?

Tag: resolution update

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