Last year, 2022, I did not share my goals for the year. I was tired; in hindsight by Covid fears and restrictions. Nonetheless, a fallow year wasn’t out of order. I should have shared my modest 2022 goal anyway, so this year, I’ll share it, along with 2023’s. Caveat: Half of my goals are personal, not book writing and publishing oriented. Those I have not included. 

One outcome I would like to have in… 

2023: someone asking if they could publish my book.

2022: Trouble Girl, Book, the Second ready to go. 

This is important to me because…

2023: it’s hard to publish a book, market and sell it; it’s also hard to find a publisher so it’d be great if someone discovered me; aka, heard of and asked me instead of vice versa.

2022: I didn’t want to release it during Covid restrictions and chose to focus on writing the rest of the books instead. Now, Book, the Second is coming out four years after Book, the First.

Ask yourself at least 3 more times why this outcome is important to you. 

This outcome is important to me because…

2023:

1. I would not have to work at getting published;
2. it would validate me and all the work I’ve been doing, as well as the nervousness and insecurity I’ve been feeling;
3. I could finish the damn books and move on.

2022: 

1. I said I’d do it and it has to be done;
2. it would give me humble confidence to fail, as it will;
3. the book will look good and have fantastic trailers, but the words won’t match the marketing so I’ll be a director of marketing this time, instead of a writer.

Speculation: take the last answer you arrived at and look from there.

If this outcome were fulfilled, what would your work and/or life look like at the end of the year? If you got what you wrote, and got it fully, what would be there at the end of the year that is not there now?

• 2023: If the books were finished and I could move on, I’d be writing more books because I’d be happy, with confidence bolstered. I’d work on a comedy story inspired by a kid I know. The working title tells you what it is about: The Nine-Year Old CEO. 
• 2022: People would admire me for my network: Mackenzie, my sister, Ella. I’d have to relinquish being top dog; I’d have to learn humility while remaining steadfast in my asks and boundaries. This combination would make me more effective. I’d have to embrace power and learn to have fun in my writing again.

Allow yourself to speculate and make note of several outcomes (try to list at least 10).

The more specific they are, the better. And, don’t try to settle on one at this point.

2023:

1. X would admire me because I was a “real” author with a book deal and a public profile.
2. X would see how writing changed me, helped me vent my trauma and worries and turn them into something valuable; art and entertainment in this case.
3. X would see themselves in the characters I made and it’d be like a mirror.
4. Such a feeling of relief: like, I had a friend and an ally who believed in me.
5. The respect I’d get from these nimrod readers—actually readers don’t care who publishes me; it’s only me who cares. 
6. I’d stop being intimidated by the perception I have that people in my orbit look down on me because I’m not professionally published—or rather, not published by an established company. Do the Wrong Thing, Book, the First, can certainly stand alongside books published by established companies, design-wise, but it lacks reach. I haven’t made it available to bookstores or sent it out for reviews, for example. I’m missing boots-on-the-ground outreach: emails, phone calls, etc.: distribution. There’s a reason Coca-Cola and Amazon own their own distribution networks.
7. I’d get press and do appearances, perhaps in schools, which would lead to more sales, opportunities, people hearing me and imitating my style and processes.
8. I wouldn’t get the books finished by the end of the year, or would I? But the end would be in sight and I’d have help and companionship on the journey and with the work.
9. I could write about/experiment with AI.
10. I’d be combining writing with working with X.

2022: 

1. I need to have fun anyway and ignore people’s opinions.
2. Embrace that I have marketing abilities.
3. Go nuts on the next book and make that a GREAT one—book 2 will be my Joanie Mitchell’s Blue.
4. Yah, my Blue. Fuck the haters.
5. I’ll get more peeps interested in making toys, dresses, movies about Trouble Girl and Do the Wrong Thing, the Series.
6. Maybe a movie.
7. I’m missing something, what is it? The Vagina Monologues thing? Should I be starting some foundation for people who have “seen some shit” writing fiction based on it, to clear their heads and hearts?
8. Do the Write Thing, the foundation already exists—contact them?

NOTE: 2 personal outcomes not listed for 2022.

One, two or three outcomes from the above list that most represent the fulfillment of what is important to me:

2023:

• combining writing with working with X.
• friend and ally who believed in me.
• seeing past annoyances to the future.

2022: 

• Yah, my Blue, fuck the haters!
• Embrace that I have marketing abilities.
• Do the Write Thing, the foundation already exists—contact them?

This step adds the greatest amount of empowerment to this process.

Get out your calendar and schedule times to do those things that will result in your achieving the outcome you selected. At this time you may not know all that needs to be done. However, if you have time scheduled, you can reflect and determine what actions are appropriate at that time.

2023:

• Keep doing what you’re doing with the added calmness and chillness you’ve had since Xmas and since you had Covid. Stop forcing and driving yourself. Slow down and trust yourself. Remember what you learned from jogging: you are faster when you relax even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time. You have learned a bad habit (over-exertion) that you must correct.
• So:
  • Write 2.75 hours/day 6 days/week = 16.5 hrs/week
  • OR marketing 20 hours/week.
  • These can be combined, adding up to 20 hrs/week
• Keep learning from T’s example.

2022: 

• Write 2.75 hours/day 6 days/week = 16.5 hrs
• OR marketing up to 20 hours/week total with writing
• Hire a housecleaner

NOTE: I did look into the Do the Wrong Thing foundation. I didn’t make a note of it but there was a reason that it wasn’t appropriate for me to contact them.