Dear Me 2022

Dear Me,
I made a quick look at last year's letter. I am happy to announce I was not so emotionally drained as I was last year. Covid is still very much a part of our lives, but it is not depleting me the way it was this time last year.

Last year I had a full time LTO in a special education class and the stress of figuring out how to teach both in class and online was overwhelming at times. This year I do not have an LTO. I am doing daily supply work and being very selective about what schools and classes I take to teach. I may try to broaden my horizons and try to teach online.

One thing that helped my writing and my motivation in that area of my life was joining the Ninja Writers in the fall. Since then, I have been able to take workshops and various writing and reading sessions that have helped me grow as a writer. At the end of 202, I took part in their Fresh Start sessions. A week to focus on life goals for 2022. These are the goals that came out of that session:

My Big Five Goals for 2022
Get myself healthy and strong. That also means carving off about 40 pounds.
Declutter my living spaces and keep them tidy and manageable.
Work towards getting a contract teaching position. Find a balance between teaching and writing.
Write a novel. Blog on Medium. Write poetry and short stories. Finish them and get them published.
Connect with friends and family - strengthen those bonds.

The first week of January I did another session called the Proposal for My Writing Journey where I focused more on the writing aspect of my goals. This time we took my Big Hairy Goal - to be a writer - and developed a thesis statement and motto to keep me going for the year.

My thesis statement is:
I am a storyteller with a fulfilling creative writing career.

My motto is:
Our Intention creates our reality - Wayne Dyer.

My guiding questions are:
Am I choosing love or fear?
Is what I'm doing doing today getting me closer to where I want to be tomorrow?

As I look back at last year, I notice many of my goals have not changed. My focus remains with my writing and my health.

Projects I am working on:

A poetry collection.
Next steps towards this goal:
Take a workshop on Creating a Poetry Chapbook with the Ninja Writers.
         I am thinking of collecting poems about writing and inspiration to start.
Continue to go through all the poetry I have written and copy and organize them into years.
Sift through the poems themselves and see if there are any common themes that may blend themselves together.
Have one poetry collection compiled by year's end.

Edit my Nano Novel - Arlynn's Way.
Next steps towards this goal:
Delve into the editing process.
         I have purchased Scrivener 3.0 in December of last year to help orgnizing this
Reread and copying what I have into that resource.
Read sections during the Ninja Writers Tuesday night Fiction Co-Working calls and Readers Group to get some feedback with revision.
Ninja Writers will continue to keep me focused on this.

Work on the first Draft of Zayda's Quest.
Next Steps with this goal:
Work on completing this project that I started last November.
Attend Ninja Writers NWAL sessions
          They have helped me develop my 5 key plot points and 8 sequences of a novel.
Work through the 8 sequences of my novel.
I will have a first draft written by summer.

Weekly Contests.
Next steps for this goal:
Work on contests each week.
          Choose from WDC contests and contests off site.
Take part in Monthly Contest Challenge
Take part in I Write - Decade Edition
          I Write - Decade Edition is running 3 10 week sessions over the year = 30 contests.
I will accomplish 52 contests in 52 weeks over the year.

Goodreads.com
I will read 30 books in 2022.

For Health and Fitness, I have committed myself to several goals:

Walk and move more.
I aim to get 10,000 steps a day at least 2 to 4 times a week.

Yoga.
I need to stretch and tone. I am committing to 1 to 3 sessions a week.

Meditation.
I need to destress and manage my blood pressure. I am committed to 1 to 3 sessions a week.

Decluttering
I need to get my life slimmed down to help make creativity flourish.

I wish everyone an amazing year. I intend to make this my best one yet.

Words = 794.