Reflections and goals

So today is it, the first day of the new year. Not only that, it is the first day a new decade. And while I tend not to be too introspective on my life or blog, I felt the time was right to do just a little.

While I tend not to be vocal with my goals and aspirations, I did, at the begining of 2009, make two goals for myself. One was to get my green belt in Tang Soo Do. Along side that goal was a general get more healthy. The second goal was to make signifigant progress as a writer.

As I sit back and reflect I am happy with this last years progress. I earned my green stripe on December 23 one belt higher then my goal and lost 60 pounds in the process. I actually broke a board doing a jump front kick, something that the thought actually gave me nightmares the few days before the belt ceremony. (If you know what I look like you know that is an amazing feat.)

2009 was also a banner year for me writing wise, I created one writing group, and helped facilitate another, I won an awesome three chapter review from the editor at Covenant. I atended LTUE and had an awesome experience especially when I shared my elevator pitch with a book blurb class. Last year at the LDStorymakers conference I recieved 2 MS requests. One from a ten page review and one from that elevator pitch.
I submitted to the publisher that just feels like the perfect match for me and was asked to revise and resubmit. I have an awesome friend that has offered to help me revise this MS so I can resubmit it. And for both of us the end is near we think. I am working on that now. I have made amazing friends and just had a general blast as I have written my way through this year.

Granted it hasn't been easy, there have been more then a handfull of days where I have just about given up as the adversary has tried to convince me that I am not a writer and that I will never reach my goal of being published. But all in all it has been a blessed year. Interesting, there has hardly been a day I didn't want to go to Karate tho, I love the class and what I am learning, I have even been sick on the couch and lamented that I couldn't go to Karate. Funny huh?

So this year is more of the same, I want to get to my red belt or red stripe by the end of the year, and I want to get that contract for my MS this year. I am also making a goal to write every day, I have fallen out of that habit and miss the intense, intimate work of just putting words on a page. I want to be healthy, and to continue to love my family and raise them in the right way, but that goal is usually unstated and is worked on daily without acknowledgement.