lifelines

You know what's funny? Just after Christmas I visited a psychic for the first time on Bell Boulevard. It was just a little joke to myself, and partly book research turned field trip. I've always been prone to all this sort of spiritual stuff, from horoscopes to dream meanings and whatnot, so I've always been wary of going to one just because I didn't want to fall down the rabbit hole and end up giving her all my money. To my surprise (and maybe it's just a sign of me growing up), I was much more of a skeptic than I thought I'd be. But the one thing she did tell me that really, really got to me was this: you've been doing well, but you have to remain focused. As I left the table and made my way to the bar later that evening, that was the only thing I could really think about. Stay focused, Justine. Stay focused!

(As you can tell, this is still very much on my mind. Maybe the psychic was on to something, after all.)

So that's my New Year's Resolution for 2017. To remain focused. To be honest, this wasn't something that was always easy to follow this year. I strayed from books I swore I'd finish, didn't take down important notes I could've used for later, wasn't kind to myself when I knew I was just starting out in original fiction. I drifted in both my dreams and insecurities. I asked myself "are we there yet?" and "am I even good enough?" much too often, and wandered from my path in doing so.

I've always been good at just waiting for things to happen. I consider sitting around a pastime of mine, first to baseball and second to writing. As much as I know I've made better strides in 2016 to better myself, to stand up for the things I've created, to remove myself from people who've only brought me down, I realize there's still so much to be done. All I know is that I still have to keep writing and writing and writing, and that means setting measurable goals. Here they are, in handy dandy bulletproof form: