I’ll be honest, this hasn’t been the easiest post to write. It’s been sitting in my drafts folder for a long time. Why? I’ve never been someone who has had a problem admitting when they’ve done something wrong. If I know I’ve done it, I admit it, fix it (if possible) and move on. I also tend to be a very honest person (sometimes too much so).

Designed by Freepik

But it’s taken me awhile to be honest with myself on something in particular. Mostly because I couldn’t see it. 2015 was not a particularly pleasant year for me on the personal front. The year started rocky from day one (literally) and just kept going downhill from there. There were very few upswings, so saying 2015 was a roller coaster ride wouldn’t be accurate. This was more like the amusement park shut down all the rides, closed up shop and became the haunted park the Scooby Gang investigates. Only, that would probably be awesome because….Scooby Snacks for all!

In mid-February of 2016, I believe I had finally hit the break point. I’ve discussed this already on Facebook, so I’m not going to re-hash things here, but that moment, that day, was the rock bottom turning point that I needed. In a nutshell, I had absolutely no sense of control when it came to anything in my life. And, in turn, I unknowingly gave up on a lot of things in my life both personally and professionally. Things I once considered normal had been abandoned. Mostly because I thought I had control of my shit and life wasn’t going to get the best of me. Well…it did. Boy, did it get the best of me good and hard. It kicked me in the ass, punched me to the ground, pummelled me into a globby mess and then stomped on me for good measure.

Ruh-ro.

But all those things I gave up on? I’m not giving up on them. Over the past few weeks I’ve forced myself to take a hard look at what I wanted out of life – personally and professionally. It hasn’t been the prettiest glimpse, but it is my life and I’m embracing it fully. I have set goals for myself: short term, long term and life long. Brainstormed and made lists to set plans in motion for all my shit. See, a few years ago, I had a clearer picture of what I wanted. I set a yearly goal, and went for it. Then, I stopped. In 2014, I didn’t set any goals for 2015. And, obviously, I didn’t set any goals in 2015 for 2016. In an effort to whip myself into shape, I have now (literally, BTW, that’s my exercise log below).

One of those goals was to give Get Off Easy some of the attention it deserved last year. I learned a lot self-publishing this book, mostly in the “What Not To Do” category, which is okay, you have to make mistakes in order to learn. But now I’m armed with a strategic list and feel more confident in my approach. Namely cleaning up the guts of the book by hiring a professional proofreader (something I failed to do last year because I thought I could, you guessed it, handle my own shit proofreading). That process is done and I’m very pleased with the results! The new, corrected file for Get Off Easy had already been uploaded to e-tailers where it is on sale and if you have the capability, you just have to refresh to allow updates (Kindle does this, I believe).

As for moving forward and what book I’m going to release next, I wish I had a concrete answer. Right now, I have a clear docket for the rest of the year because I haven’t written anything to release. I’ve worked on bits and pieces of things, but I’m not stressing about it, mostly because that’s how I got into this place in the first…place. :^) Right now, getting myself back to rights is where my attention is focused. I get that straight…everything else will follow.