January Wrap-Up: On Already Dropping the Ball

The first month of the year is done. 

I don’t know about you, but January crawled for me. I don’t think this is an uncommon feeling though because at least one meme about how is next week still January crossed my feed last week when I was doom scrolling. 

I set a goal of writing 300 words a day, every day, without fail. And this went really well until I hit the first snafu. Weather.

A winter storm hit, the kind we used to get but haven’t gotten in several years, and certainly not since I started owning horses again. And it felt like my entire brain was taken up by the singular task of keeping my horse’s water buckets from freezing.

(If you’re a horse person and you’re reading this, I don’t need hints and tips! I promise you, I’ve read all of them, this isn’t my first rodeo, but it was my first rodeo without the ability to plug in heated buckets or a tank heater.) 

Horses are very fragile creatures, considering we used to ride into war on them. If they’re eating hay and they don’t have enough water, the hay gets compacted into their colons, their gut stops moving, and uh, they either die, or you have to hospitalize them and often do surgery to remove the impaction. 

Like I said, fragile creatures. 

So I was stressed. To say the least. 

And I spent more hours at the barn because I was breaking ice in buckets so she’d drink. And when I wasn’t at the barn, I was thinking about the situation at the barn.

I didn’t write 300 words a day. And once I derailed, I derailed. It’s been a week since everything warmed up again, and I still haven’t gotten back into the habit of writing 300 words a day. I’ve written since then, but in sporadic bursts.

In the past, I’d give up on this goal now. I’d be like, well, that was nice, but I guess that was the only try. In my brain, tries are like The Highlander. There’s only one. It’s all or nothing. Black or white. Big feelings, no feelings. Success or failure.

But it really wasn’t a failure. 

I still wrote 17,609 words this month.

I edited 190,003 words this month.

I still got a lot done.

I am making real headway on my draft, finally, so I’m going to redouble these efforts. Even though, February, being absolutely the worst of the winter months, will probably throw a frozen water bucket debacle at my way. I know how I’ll handle it now, so I feel less stressed.

So I’m back to writing 300 words a day. Every day. Because even though I didn’t write 300 words a day, every day, all month, I still wrote. I still sat down more days than not and stared at my computer and forced 300 words out of my fingertips, even when I was tired.

Now I need to do it even when I’m tired and cold.

I’m diving into more of this idea of changing my mindset from all or nothing, black or white, victory or failure, in my newsletter this month. If you haven’t subscribed, you can do so here. It goes out on Sunday, February 4th.

Come on, shortest month, coldest month, weirdest month. Let’s do this.