Jeremy C Kester

I always say that I am not going to make any resolutions for the new year, but as every new year comes (with my birthday happening only days later) I find that I am examining the prior year and resolving to change things. With 2016 having been especially tough on my family and I, my goals revolve around building stronger foundations to battle against adversity.

So here we go, here are my “resolutions” or targeted goals for 2017. First some writing, then some general goals.

• Try to write every day.
  This one has been tough for me in the past for a number of reasons. Probably chief among them has been my pursuit of perfection. Every word I write I try to make worth keeping. Insane, I know. Most often, this hinders my writing. If I can reduce my dependence on perfection (which is a worthy pursuit, but something one will never achieve) then I believe I can make this one work. And that brings me to the next goal:
• Just write.
  This is that goal against the pursuit of perfection. I love writing. I have fun with it. Even if I never gain genuine success as a writer enabling me to quit my job and focus exclusively on writing, I will continue to write. So why worry so much about how perfect or flawed whatever I write is?
• Publish 4 (or more) titles this year.
  This one will be tough, but is possible. I have one title about ready, but the other 3 will take some work. I believe I can do it. This will help build my catalog.
• Improve my marketing presence.
  This one I’ve already worked on some. It includes getting my current titles into the correct categories and assign the right keywords to improve their SEO (I hate even using that term). I have a good base of stories out there now, people just need to find them and they need to garner enough interest that not only does someone find them, but they are interested in actually reading them.
• Read more.
  ‘nuff said.
• Create a life where I chase the process rather than the result.
  Look up stoicism for a glimpse of what I mean by this.
• Continue to switch over to paleo/primal eating regiment.
  I’ve already done some of the basic steps, increasing fat intake and significantly reducing my carb intake from what it was. Because of that I’ve lost 15 lbs. That with the holidays and being sick enough (shingles, car accident, tooth problems, etc) and enough going on to be unable to get to the gym for over a month. The gym itself isn’t a goal considering the only thing stopping me was illness combined with a hectic month.
• Reduce the amount I rely on social media.
  I did really good for weeks this past year almost completely ignoring all things social media. I need to be able to use it for marketing, but beyond that, it isn’t necessary in my life. But here I am always using it as a tool for entertaining myself. I need to get back away from that.

By no means am I expecting an instantaneous transition to these traits, but rather I am expecting to make slow, steady, progressive movements towards these goals. As long as I can keep moving towards them, if I haven’t achieved them all by the end of 2017, at least I know I am getting there… so long as I keep momentum.

Here’s to a new year! 2017 should be better. Let’s make it so.