Where Am I?

Way back at the beginning of the year I set myself some big goals, and then broke them down into nibble-sized chunks to be completed over a 12 week/quarterly basis through the year. That's right, I'm turning my life into business plans - boring but so far it seems to be working. Below are the goals I set in January and where I am with the dawning of April:

- Improve fitness, specifically with cardio and making exercise a regular part of my life.

DONE! I joined the gym in January and have successfully gone three times a week, every week, since. When I started I could barely run for more than five minutes and everything hurt, all the time. Everything still hurts but I can now run for a full half hour without stopping and have regularly done classes I could never imagine being able to do before. Turns out Spinning is well named; I always thought it sounded like a medieval form of torture and I was right - but it is also brilliant fun. Or I'm weird. Maybe both. The important thing is I hit my weight goal and no longer feel like a blancmange.

- Write two short stories

FAIL! Except I haven't - let me explain: I originally thought I would write two stories to completion and have them out in the big bad world by now seeking publish and payment. I thought this despite having no idea of what kind of stories I would write or the markets I would send them to. That was my first mistake. I did come up with a nifty story idea though and rather than give up on it when it got tough I kept going, reworking it and cutting away anything that wasn't working. I also discovered some fantastic resources for ideas and plotting which will speed up future endeavours. So I consider this a win more than anything else.

- Read at least four books

DONE! I have finished an unexpected SIX books since January. All of them were fiction and for the next 12 weeks I want to try to get a non-fiction book in there. At the end of last year I realised I hadn't read nearly as much as I could have, and not as widely as I'd like so I'm in a good place to change that for the better this year.

- Book a holiday somewhere you've never been

DONE! In July I will be going to Rome with my man for eight glorious nights in that magical city. I have always wanted to see Rome, especially after studying so much of Roman history during my Classics degree, so I am extremely excited about this. Squeel!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with progress, despite not having any completed stories to show for it. I feel more confident when I'm writing now, and a lot more organised, which can't be a bad thing. I'm now thinking about the next quarter and what I want to achieve by the time 1st July rolls by… initial ideas are:

• Read at least four books, with at least one being non-fiction
• Increase my strength and get toned in time for the Rome holiday
• Finish the short story I'm working on, including all edits.
• Plan out a longer fiction piece and identify research areas
• Write one blog post a week
• Learn and practise HTML and CSS

Six goals seems doable but the major goal for the coming months and in fact for the whole year is: Live a Creative Life. That seems a pretty good place to start, and an excellent place to be.