VJ's Revolution

This week has been a little like driving through the town where my Grandpa lives…if you blink…it’s gone. It has been an interesting week. So much so, that I missed the Sunday check in.

Here is a quick update on the goals:

Write 750 words every day.

Done….almost. I missed one day. We watched a movie, and hubby and I downed a couple of frozen strawberry margaritas. I wanted to write…but I was just too tired. So I’m back to being an turkey on 750words.com. Sigh. I got one day as a flamingo, and it was great, I tell you. It was great.  By this time next week I’ll be back in the pink. Total word count 11,867 and counting!

Finish 8 Chapters

I wish I could say I had finished another chapter. I’m still sitting at 1.5, but I have hacked out  a good chunk of the next chapter. I just need to flesh it out a bit.

Row 50 miles in 80 Days

I am happy to report that I am sticking to this goal. I didn’t row every day, but I am just under 10 miles rowed. I should be making more significant progress on this since I have upped my time on the rower to 20 minutes. Did my first 20 minute session last night and rowed 2.2 miles! Whoohoo! I’ll probably be feeling it tomorrow, but for now I’m feeling pretty good, and darn proud of myself.

The Rest of the Week:

Thursday we had our little shin-dig going away thing at work. The cupcakes were a hit! Whew! Then came the big day…Friday. I spent the entire day announcing the Military Spouse Business Association’s alliance with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as part of the Military Spouse Business Alliance! I am so excited to be a part of this. I’m a military spouse and I used to run my own business. I wrote the first of a weekly installment of a blog column called “Confessions of a Former Business Owners.” In this column I’ll reveal all the stupid, naive, money-wasting, profit-damaging things I did in hopes that I can save others from the same mistakes. It is a bit embarrassing, but entirely liberating to share all  your mistakes with others. If I can help even just one other military spouse, I’ll feel like it was all worth it.

The weekend, all four days of it, I admit, was spent being, for lack of a better word…lazy. I managed to get some reading and a little bit of writing in. Also tried to build up my new MSBA Twitter account a bit. Sunday I officially took my first steps on the down slope to forty. I have to say, 36 feels pretty much like 35. And for that matter, not all that different from 30. Here’s hoping I’ve at least managed to learn a little bit of something or other in the last few years, and that by the time I hit 40, I’ll know it all. Mwhahaha! The day was wonderful. Kiddos made me breakfast, we went out to dinner to celebrate, and then came home and made s’mores! What could be better than some ooey, gooey, chocolately s’mores on your birthday?

Back to work on Tuesday…MSBA meeting, work, kids, homework, dancing and rowing. I drafted the next blog installment for my business column, so that’s ready to go. Tonight, I gotta get on this next chapter of my book.

Only 68 more days to go in this ROW80 challenge…I’m still hanging in there! So are all of these amazing folks!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday and time for another ROW80 check in. Wowza!

The days really are beginning to run together, but let’s see if can remember what has happened in the last couple of days.

Writing Goals – 750 Daily

I am happy to report that I have met my writing goals every day! I’ve logged a minimum of 750 words a day for a week now, bringing my cumulative total to 6,675 words!

Chapter Goals – 8 in 80 Days

Still sitting at 1.5 chapters total, but I’ve plotted out the next couple of chapters, so hopefully the writing will get easier. I’m getting into a big bite of tension and excitement in the book, hopefully that means that the words will flow like Niagara Falls!

Rowing Goals – 50 Miles in 80 Days

Added another 2.5 miles to the goal so we’re at a total of 3.75. Man, I can’t wait to get that number into double digits. Sadly, last night I just couldn’t make myself do it. And tonight I won’t be home until well after 8 PM, so I have a feeling I will be skipping tonight, too. But I added two minutes to my row session, so hopefully, I’ll start racking up the mileage at a faster rate.

Other Things This Week

Monday, I posted feedback for everyone in my critique group! Yes, finally! And you know what? They are all fantastic writers, so as much as I was helping, I was simply just loving getting to read the next chapter in their books. It’s like reading and writing at the same time. What could be better than that? I also started visiting ROW80 blogs…so many, I haven’t been able to get to them all yet! But I will, promise!

Yesterday was a late night due to some VIP visits at work. I got home and baked 3 dozen cupcakes for the recognition ceremony tonight. I am hoping to have time to get some pics before they get eaten. This time we made three flavors:  Butterscotch Toffee Sundae, Coconut Cream Pie, and Double Chocolate Berry. They are not my best effort, but I was just so tired last night. I was so tempted just to buy them from the store, but I made a promise to bake, so I did.

Things are revving up for the free writing course over at WritersVillage.com. I am so honored and excited that they let me be an intern this round. Everyone I’ve met over there has been nothing short of brilliant. Being an intern feels like getting to eat in the teachers lounge and eat with cool kids all at the same time. I can’t wait…class starts January 25th.

And last, but not least, I am a marketing volunteer for the Military Spouse Business Association. We have a big announcement coming up on Friday and I uploaded and prepped the press release for that this morning.  It’s so good, I can’t even hint on what is about, but it promises to be such a huge benefit for our members. I will be spending Friday spreading the word online and getting our press release out to all kinds of folks. I have learned so many business lessons the hard way,  I am delighted to be a part of an organization that helps military spouses avoid some pitfalls.

That about sums up this week. Four day weekend this weekend for me…my birthday weekend…how cool is that?

The plan is to continue with the 750 words a day. The website I’m using gives you badges for every day you’ve completed the goal. I started out as an egg…I’m up to being a penguin. Three more days of writing and I’ll be a flamingo. I’m good with that, pink, feathered, and with long skinny legs that won’t quit. Yes, I think I might quite like being a flamingo.

And I am bound and determined to sit my but on that rower and be in double digits by this time next week.

What about you? Got plans and goals? I’d love to hear about them! Happy writing ya’ll!

P.S. How could I forget to add the link so you can check out all the other amazing ROW80 writers? Take a few minutes and post some words of encouragement!

So a quick check in for ROW80 and my own sanity.

Day 1 of Success

1. Finished one day of 750words.com which helped me to finish my current chapter. The plan is to write 8 chapters in 80 days. This wasn’t technically a whole chapter, more like a half a chapter. So I am half a chapter down and seven and a half more to go.

2. Visited 3 Row80 Blogs (will visit more today) and love to see other folks committing to their writing, outlook, and health. Motivation and excitement is contagious, and I am so happy to find it all in abundance.

For the rest of the week the plan is to:

1. Write at least another 750 words daily

2. Visit no less than 3 Row80 Blogs daily

3. Give feedback at least one feedback in my critique group

4. Actually use the rower tonight as opposed to just looking at it and thinking about it!

There, that’s it. My motivational rockets are firing and there is nothing but forward momentum from here.

I don’t think there has been a single year of my adult life where I haven’t had some kind of New Year’s resolution. They are almost always a reflection of the things I didn’t accomplish in the previous year. It occurred to me recently, that starting out by setting expectations for the new year based on my perceived failures of the previous year, started me on a journey that was bound to fail. So this year, instead of spending too much time lamenting on what I didn’t do last year, I’ve decide to just plan the future successes of this year.

In order to not only set them but help me stay accountable for resisting laziness and actually seeing them into fruition, I’ve joined a couple of groups:

MomWriter Goals Group – a fantastic group of, I’m sure you’ve already guessed, Mom Writers. They opened up the group for new members and all I can say is that I am in awe of their goals for the year. I posted my measly four future successes and felt pretty proud of myself. Then I took a peek at what some of the other ladies had planned…holy cow, Batman! If I can sop up even a handful of the determination and organization that these other ladies seemingly exude from every pore, then I have no doubt I’ll see this book finished in no time. This group offered me a chance to set some future successes for the year, so here they are…in no particular order:

1. Finish this book. I’ve been puttering around long enough, if I can’t finish it this year, then I think I will have to retire it for a while and move onto something else.
2. When I finish that book, it will need several rounds of edits. If I can write it this year then I can edit it this year too.
3. Move my family to the East Coast, and get settled in (i.e. find a house I can love, a job I can tolerate, and schools that are the best I can provide for my children.
4. Create 10 downloadable business courses for the Military Spouse Business Association. I ran my own business for four years before deciding to close. I learned so many lessons the hard way, the hope is to share some of the lessons learned and some of the great social media experience I’ve had since then, to help other military spouses achieve their own future successes.

I have also decided to participate in Row80, another writing-based goals group that has broken up the year into four 80-day sessions, with a couple of days off here and there. Another layer of accountability, inspiration, and hopefully motivation to make this year the year I can say I am an author. I like this group because they require a blog post to be a part of the action and because I can take the bigger future successes for the year and break them up into four, nicely organized quarters. So, for the first 2012 round of Row80, here are my future successes, again in no particular order:

1. Write 8 chapters of my book. That’s ten days a chapter. No inner critic shouting at me to write it perfectly, no going back and rewriting the previous chapters, only forward movement, and a fast clip at that.
2. Row 50 miles. My weight and I have been battling each other since I got out of the Army and had three babies pretty much back to back. I’m done hating the way I look, I’m done dreading shopping. Hubby bought me a fancy-schmancy rowing machine for Christmas. It tracks cumulative distance rowed, so the goal is to row 50 miles between now and the end of this first 80 session.
3. Give feedback to every post in my dedicated review group over at Writer’s Village University. These are like my writing besties and I have been neglecting them as of late. I never feel more inspired to write my own book, then when I read their own creative installments.

There…I’ve committed it all to print, my future successes for 2012. What about you? What are your future successes for this year?