So, January can be a bit, well, shite, right? I tend to start off with good intentions. Excited by the boundless possibility before me. But quickly the first month of a new year starts to feel more akin to the length of a century and with the light, better described as dark, it’s often not long before my spirit starts staring morosely at the floor, shrugging its shoulders helplessly as it hunches deeper into my chest. All my ideas, positive vibes, dreams that I formed and planned for the year, start to feel as if they need five-factor authentication just to access!
With writing I’m used to carrying on when I hit the dreaded “this isn’t feeling shiny-new fun anymore, this is all feeling like endless hard work” otherwise how would I ever end up with a finished project? Let’s be real – it’s devilishly hard to defeat the opacity and keep writing. Especially when the words start coming slower, the plot starts to feel mundane, the characters a bit too basic and creeping panic undermines earlier confidence, planning, and determination just as all the doors and windows thrust themselves wide open to let all the sweet-smelling procrastination in.
When I hit that part of a book is when I break out all the hacks I’ve learned in order to put my bum back in the chair and my hands on the keyboard and resume writing until I’m off and running again with it.
So why do I find it so hard to do that with all the other things I have planned for my year? Is it just because it’s January?
I start to worry that if January already feels the length of a century, I definitely don’t have time to spend a hundred years pondering all this! I need to figure out a way of accessing all those plans I made and start actioning them. Or, at least some of them because just as I don’t want to feel like I’ve failed in the first month of the year, I equally don’t want to feel like all I live for is fulfilling plans (on account of the whole journey not destination thing, right?). Also, the perfectionist in me is aware that it’s healthier to keep the door to spontaneity if not wide open then ajar. Or at the very least, unlocked!
While sitting dejected in my writing chair pondering (worrying) that endless January was in fact the actual definition of just letting plans and goals and dreams slip through my fingers, I realised something pretty dramatic…
Yeah, so, um, it turns out that where my January equals early--onset-of-creeping-panic, I could probably more appropriately describe it as… a lack of patience!
I’d been trying to cut corners. Be in it already. Fully immersed from the first and probably hallway through the entire set of plans, goals, and dreams by the thirty-first! Almost as a way of avoiding those dreary, samey days or exhausting world-tilting events that somehow hit harder at the start of a new year? Maybe.
Gah!
I needed something to help me sit with it all until the dark days of the century had its fill and, like a bored cat, got to its feet, stretched, and sauntered off.
The answer turned out to be literally staring me in the face as I looked at the motto on my *Word Accountability Calendar.
Shining beacon-like and expounding the perfect way to reset and land back in a place where I could access all those plans with joy and energy were the words: Hold Onto The Magic Around You
Simple.
Inspiring.
Energising.
So here’s a little of the magic I’ve been holding onto around me: Spying a pink camelia flower, petals fully unfurled despite it being a freezing -6 while out on a plotting walk, a spontaneous lunch out with my family to make up for missing out on Christmas with them all, seeing a tree-climber bird for first time in the garden, journaling, crafting, discovering an unopened box of Christmas chocolates, readers taking the time to contact me and tell me how they’ve loved The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, some of my backlist covers getting a glow-up, booking tickets to see an exhibition with a friend, snow falling (the perfect amount), watching some great winter tv, reading, more reading, even more reading 😊, seeing a white feather on the ground right when I needed to, fairy dust moment of inspiration when researching next book, coffee with friends, wine with friends!
All these things = magical properties that gave me a smile, a happy burst of colour, a warm glow, a giggle, a stress-relieving belly laugh, a eureka fist-bump, a sense of relief, a sense of pride, an insight, a different way forward, a better understanding, a connection, a resetting pause, time to be present and enjoy being in the moment.
The magic you hold onto – that gets you through and propels you forward will be different and I’d love to hear what some of it is, so let me know in the comments 😊.
*Every year I choose a calendar for the following year that I can list my daily word counts onto. A little accountability hack that helps me keep to the routine business of writing. It’s such a small thing but I love seeing what artwork speaks to me, what layout will work, how it will look in my office! By the time I get around to opening it on New Year’s Day I’ve forgotten what each month’s picture is and so I then get a little advent calendar rush on the first of each month! It may not be a chocolate or beauty product but it puts a smile on my face, and it’s surprising how many times I stare at it during writing sessions. It’s definitely helping me exit the century that is January more gracefully!
With writing I’m used to carrying on when I hit the dreaded “this isn’t feeling shiny-new fun anymore, this is all feeling like endless hard work” otherwise how would I ever end up with a finished project? Let’s be real – it’s devilishly hard to defeat the opacity and keep writing. Especially when the words start coming slower, the plot starts to feel mundane, the characters a bit too basic and creeping panic undermines earlier confidence, planning, and determination just as all the doors and windows thrust themselves wide open to let all the sweet-smelling procrastination in.
When I hit that part of a book is when I break out all the hacks I’ve learned in order to put my bum back in the chair and my hands on the keyboard and resume writing until I’m off and running again with it.
So why do I find it so hard to do that with all the other things I have planned for my year? Is it just because it’s January?
I start to worry that if January already feels the length of a century, I definitely don’t have time to spend a hundred years pondering all this! I need to figure out a way of accessing all those plans I made and start actioning them. Or, at least some of them because just as I don’t want to feel like I’ve failed in the first month of the year, I equally don’t want to feel like all I live for is fulfilling plans (on account of the whole journey not destination thing, right?). Also, the perfectionist in me is aware that it’s healthier to keep the door to spontaneity if not wide open then ajar. Or at the very least, unlocked!
While sitting dejected in my writing chair pondering (worrying) that endless January was in fact the actual definition of just letting plans and goals and dreams slip through my fingers, I realised something pretty dramatic…
Yeah, so, um, it turns out that where my January equals early--onset-of-creeping-panic, I could probably more appropriately describe it as… a lack of patience!
I’d been trying to cut corners. Be in it already. Fully immersed from the first and probably hallway through the entire set of plans, goals, and dreams by the thirty-first! Almost as a way of avoiding those dreary, samey days or exhausting world-tilting events that somehow hit harder at the start of a new year? Maybe.
Gah!
I needed something to help me sit with it all until the dark days of the century had its fill and, like a bored cat, got to its feet, stretched, and sauntered off.
The answer turned out to be literally staring me in the face as I looked at the motto on my *Word Accountability Calendar.
Shining beacon-like and expounding the perfect way to reset and land back in a place where I could access all those plans with joy and energy were the words: Hold Onto The Magic Around You
Simple.
Inspiring.
Energising.
So here’s a little of the magic I’ve been holding onto around me: Spying a pink camelia flower, petals fully unfurled despite it being a freezing -6 while out on a plotting walk, a spontaneous lunch out with my family to make up for missing out on Christmas with them all, seeing a tree-climber bird for first time in the garden, journaling, crafting, discovering an unopened box of Christmas chocolates, readers taking the time to contact me and tell me how they’ve loved The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love, some of my backlist covers getting a glow-up, booking tickets to see an exhibition with a friend, snow falling (the perfect amount), watching some great winter tv, reading, more reading, even more reading 😊, seeing a white feather on the ground right when I needed to, fairy dust moment of inspiration when researching next book, coffee with friends, wine with friends!
All these things = magical properties that gave me a smile, a happy burst of colour, a warm glow, a giggle, a stress-relieving belly laugh, a eureka fist-bump, a sense of relief, a sense of pride, an insight, a different way forward, a better understanding, a connection, a resetting pause, time to be present and enjoy being in the moment.
The magic you hold onto – that gets you through and propels you forward will be different and I’d love to hear what some of it is, so let me know in the comments 😊.
*Every year I choose a calendar for the following year that I can list my daily word counts onto. A little accountability hack that helps me keep to the routine business of writing. It’s such a small thing but I love seeing what artwork speaks to me, what layout will work, how it will look in my office! By the time I get around to opening it on New Year’s Day I’ve forgotten what each month’s picture is and so I then get a little advent calendar rush on the first of each month! It may not be a chocolate or beauty product but it puts a smile on my face, and it’s surprising how many times I stare at it during writing sessions. It’s definitely helping me exit the century that is January more gracefully!
Eve xx
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