Finish Year Update - June 2012

It's Friday! Are you surprised to see me here? Are you surprised that I spell "surprise" wrong every single time I type it? [Because I do. Every. Single. Time. Stupid in-cognito "r."] Anyway, I'm usually a Tuesday/Thursday blogger, mostly because I can't wrangle myself together enough on Sundays to have a post polished and ready to go by Monday at 8am.

But this week, get excited, because you get the exclusive privilege of reading an EXTRA post this week.

[This is the part where you get excited. I'll wait. If it helps, think about the fact that it's Friday. Or cupcakes. Ok, moving on.]

I haven't done a Finish Year update in a while, but I thought since I've made some progress I'd share what I've been up to.

So if you haven't read my previous posts on Finish Year, essentially it's a campaign of sorts started by Jon Acuff in which he challenged his readers (and anyone else who wanted to participate) to pick a handful of things they wanted to finish this year. Not start---finish. Because starting is the easy part. Finishing is the part everyone dreads.

It's a new take on New Year's Resolutions, but a much more practical approach. The idea is not to pick too many things. Pick a few. And to pick things you actually WANT to have finished. Not things you just feel like you should finish.

Anyway, I picked out five things to finish this year. Here they are, along with the progress I've made on each one:

Finish "The Empress" by the end of February 2012. ["The Empress" is a fictional short story I started as a contest entry.] I've totally failed on the "by the end of February" part of this goal. No excuse except for the fact that I'm kind of tired of doing it. But I know I need to finish it, if nothing else, for the discipline. I've finished a complete beginning-to-end draft (I think), but it still needs a ton of editing. The fact that I keep reading it over and editing along the way doesn't help. Anyway, it's coming along but I haven't been actively pursuing this goal much lately. Time to get on it, I suppose!

Write (and publish) an e-book. I succeeded at this one! Once I finally was able to get some feedback on my draft, I ended up moving forward pretty quickly. I formatted it, turned it into a PDF and made it available on my blog in about a week. I released it a couple weeks ago. I'm still excited about it, and if you're interested in reading it, all you have to do is sign up for my email subscription list over on the side bar or by clicking here. (You'll only get an email if I wrote a new post that day.) In the confirmation email there will be a link to download it for free. The ebook is called "What the Whole World Longs For: A Manifesto on Commitment." It's something I really believe in, and I hope you like it!

Finish reading the Harry Potter series. I am ALMOST done with this goal, which I'm proud of but also pretty sad about. By the time I reached the fifth book, they had finally become available in Kindle format which has been AWESOME. Lugging those books to and fro was getting to be a struggle. Kind of. Anyway, I am currently (according to my Kindle) about 40% through with Deathly Hallows. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have a mourning period. I'm not ready to talk about that yet.

Finish two other books besides HP. Still working on Harry Potter, so I haven't gotten to this yet. Although I have finished two books for our community group, so I've kind of already succeeded at this goal. But since they weren't really voluntary reads, I'm not counting them.

Write guest posts for other blogs or online publications. This goal has shifted into something I wasn't expecting, but it has been awesome. I have been writing for a website called TV Asylum (a safe place for the TV-obsessed), along with a host of other hilarious writers. It's been a lot of fun to find a group of people who like to run their own commentary on TV shows like I do and like discussing TV shows in-depth. If you haven't gotten a chance yet, check out TV Asylum. There are at least three new posts per day, filled with magic and laughter except without the magic. Click the link on my sidebar to view the posts I've written so far (my posts usually go up on Wednesdays). You can also follow TV asylum on Twitter or Facebook to get updates when new posts go up.

So that's where I am! If you set goals for this year or have been doing Finish Year, how are you doing?

Finish Year Lap 2: Complete

Despite what the tree in full bloom on Wedgewood Ave. would suggest, February has just come to a close. Which I guess also signifies the official end of the winter season, so Nashville, I think we dodged a bullet on that one. I've never just skipped an entire season before. It's a strange feeling. Kind of like we've pulled one over on Mother Nature or something. Maybe she's just getting old. I mean, she's got to be a few thousand years old at least, right? Maybe she's just given up trying. Or maybe it's global warming. Guess we'll find out soon enough. Anyway, with the end of February also comes the [drumroll please]...

end of Lap 2* of Finish Year!

I know, I know. Everybody simmer down.

It also means progress report time! So start crafting your plan for how to stealthily forge your mom's signature (and practicing your speech about how progress reports don't really count for when your stealth inevitably isn't stealthy enough. Moms just know.)

Finish Year Progress Report:

Finish List Item 1: Finish "The Empress" by the end of February. Sigh. This is still in progress. So, technically I didn't meet this goal. But I've written another section that I'm actually pretty proud of and done some editing on the overall story. I need to write probably two, maybe three more sections to wrap it up. Totally fell behind on this one, but I'm getting there. Grade: C

Finish List Item 2: Write an ebook. This goal is still in progress. I have a working draft, but I feel kind of stuck. I need another couple pairs of eyes to give me some feedback. Until then I'm just editing my draft and rearranging things, only to put them back in the order I had to begin with. Grade: B

Finish List Item 3: Finish the Harry Potter Series. On my way! I just finished Goblet of Fire (#4 of 7). It was super long. I'm not gonna lie, 1) it was probably the longest book I've ever read and 2) I'm going to brag about finishing it. It was really good though--stuff got real. Order of the Phoenix is next! Grade: B+ (I probably should have read this faster.)

Finish List Item 4: Read two other books besides Harry Potter. Still working on Harry Potter so--free pass! Grade: A+++

Finish List Item 5: Write guest posts for other blogs (or online publications). I haven't done so well at this. I have a couple ideas and need to sit down and write them. I also need to look for more blogs that would be a good fit for me to guest post on. (If you have a blog you'd like me to guest post on, or know of a blog I might be a good fit for, please let me know in the comments!) Grade: C

Definitely didn't do as well as Lap 1, but that's to be expected, right? Everyone blasts out the gate, then slows down on the 2nd lap. Right? Right?? (I am not a runner by any stretch of the imagination, so I wouldn't really know.)

How's your finish list (or resolution list, or goals list) going so far?

*still a moniker made up entirely by yours truly and not, in fact, a real component of Finish Year

If I Seem Out of Breath, Here's Why.

I've been running for the last month. Well, metaphorically, that is.

Why? Because 2012 is Finish Year, and the beginning of February marks...[commence fanfare]

the end of Lap 1* of Finish Year!

I'll pause a moment for the warm applause and shouts of "you go girl" you're surely giving me as I cross the checkpoint, smiling and waving to you, still going strong. (Note: if this were an actual race, I would definitely not still be going strong and would surely have collapsed by now. Who said metaphors had to be plausible?)

Anyway, if you're just tuning in, Finish Year is a campaign Jon Acuff has initiated this year as a challenge for his readers to finish a handful of things this year. Not start them; finish them (the hard part).

So at the beginning of the year I posted my Finish List.

Since Lap 1 of 12 has now come and gone, and many of my goals are writing and/or blog-related, I thought I would do a quick progress report for you. But not the kind that's the report card's less-important cousin you received in middle school, which in actuality had no effect on your grade (and therefore you could not in good conscience be punished for.).

*this moniker refers to the first month of Finish Year and is 100% made up by yours truly.

Finish List Progress Report

Finish List Item 1: Finish "The Empress" by the end of February. I'm on my way to completing this. I posted a new installment here a few weeks ago, and plan on wrapping that up this month. My plan is to finish the rest without posting it online, go back and edit the whole thing for continuity's sake (there are already a few things I want to change), then post it in a PDF format after it's finished for anyone who would like to read it.

Finish List Item 2: Write an ebook. This goal is actually going pretty well. I've already got a first draft of something exciting I'm working on in conjunction with my blog, so stay tuned. I don't want to give away what the topic or setup will be just yet, but I'm looking forward to sharing it! Since this ebook is not initially what I had in mind when making it a goal, I'm sure I'll attempt another one after this is complete.

Finish List Item 3: Finish the Harry Potter Series. Since the last time I wrote about this, I've finished the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban, and I am about three-fourths of the way through the fourth book, Goblet of Fire (which is significantly longer, if anyone is doubting my already-pretty-slow-paced reading skills). Yes, I am a grown up and still openly carry this to work every day (so as to minimize shoulder injury from stashing it my purse).

Finish List Item 4: Read two other books besides Harry Potter. I'm trying to finish Harry Potter first before I start on any other books, so this one is in the queue. Though I have an increasingly long list of books calling my name.

New Finish List Item: Write guest posts for other blogs (or online publications). I'm not sure what a reasonable goal for the entire year would be on this one, since I have never written one before, but I'd love to do at least three by the time the year is over. Right now I am researching other blogs and learning about what it takes to write a killer guest post. (If you have a blog you'd like me to do a guest post for, or know someone whose blog you think I could contribute well to, feel free to let me know in the comments!)

Overall I feel like I'm doing pretty well, but I definitely have to start moving on the first one.

How's your finish list (or resolution list, or goals list) going so far?

Finish Year

I don't know about you, but for me, 2011 was a bit of a doozy. It definitely had its fair share of highs and lows.

But one of the best things that came out of 2011 for me was really starting to examine who I am and what I'm passionate about. I always kind of knew I liked writing and have chipped away at that over the years, but over the past 6 months or so I decided to go all in. Something I've learned by reading blogs like Jeff Goins' is that you don't have to wait for someone else to call you a writer to be one. I'm a writer because I can't not write. It's really given me something to pour into and given me a stronger sense of identity.

What really lit a fire under me was reading a book called Quitter by Jon Acuff back in August.

It helped me see how important priorities are and that if I want to write, or read, or even redo a bookshelf, I have to make time. And that it's possible to make time. For me that means saying no to 2 hours of House Hunters and brainstorming blog ideas or reading Harry Potter instead. Trade out things you like to do for things you love to do--even if they take more effort.

I've already learned so much about writing (and goals) from Jon and the community of people (particularly other writers) I've found through following his blog.

Which leads me to the point of this post.

Over the last few days, Jon has begun a campaign of sorts called Finish Year, challenging his readers to make a (short) list of things you want to finish this year. Not start; finish. Because starting is the easy part. Finishing is the unglamorous grind that we all sort of dread. But it's always worth it.

The goals can be anything, but they have to be tangible, even if it's something that seems unmeasurable, like Jon's---to have a more grateful heart. He's making it tangible by committing to hand-write 100 thank-you notes this year.

Everyone who is participating will also be tweeting (hashtag #finishyear) once a day about something they are working on to finish their goals. I may not tweet exactly once a day, but I love the idea of tracking your progress and keeping yourself accountable by publicly sharing your goals and the journey to accomplishing them.

So I wanted to share my Finish List with you this year.

1. Finish The Empress. This one will be hard for me because I already don't really want to figure out how to wrap that one up. But it will be good practice and discipline for me and I've already written three sections of it. I'd like to finish this by the end of February.

2. Write an ebook. Also a difficult goal, as I've never written a book before, but I think it's doable. Plus, ebooks can be short. First step: figuring out what the heck I want to write about.

3. Finish the Harry Potter series. I'm almost done the 3rd book. I'm determined to finish them all, even if some of them more resemble cinderblocks than novels. I'm hoping by the time I get to the last few they will be available on ebook so that I don't sustain shoulder injuries from carrying them around in my purse all the time.

4. Read two other books besides Harry Potter. You may recall my goal last year was to complete 2 books. Yep, 2.  I was terrible about starting books and not finishing them, so I made a bite-size goal. But because I started making time to read, I finished not 2, not 3, but almost 6 books this year! So I think it was a success. Anyway, because I nearly finished 6 in 2011 (I am so close to finishing HP3), my goal is to read at least 7 in 2012. For you avid readers out there, this may still seem like a travesty, but hey, I may even read eight.

That's all I have so far, but most of them are goals that will take close to the whole year to accomplish. I may add to it over the next couple days, but probably won't go over 6.

What's on your Finish List this year? Challenge yourself and make it happen.

Each day in January, Jon will be posting about Finish Year and practical ways to make your goals a reality. You can follow his blog here.