🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉
Welcome to 2024! So… what’s next? (🛎️)
Looking back on the previous year fills me with memories of “I don’t know what happened.” I honestly can’t tell you what 2023 was like for me.
We all remember 2020 😷 💩, and 2021 did a killer copy/paste job 💩 😷 💩 . 2022 was a return to normal-ish kinda sorta. Then we leapt into 2023, the year of Meh.
Meh can be a good thing.
Meh is much better than, “WOW!” and several notches above, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” Meh is a wondrous adventure over a frightening discovery, and meh can be so much better if there’s more money involved, or if you get to name something like a puppy or an ocean liner.
I played concerts that felt like meh from the stage, and yet, the audience leaped to their feet in adoration. I ate meh meals that were another person’s feast. I was meh about books and movies that some called “a masterpiece.” Whatever.
Meh can be disastrous.
A bad meh is pouring your soul into something and getting a golf clap. Hours of prep time followed by a tepid head nod and a polite, “Not bad.” Crafting, scraping, testing, roasting, editing, practicing, researching, trying, doing… all for the wrong kind of, “What’s next?” Boo!
‘23 was the year we returned to “normal” only we found out that “normal” still tastes like the last three years so… 💩 Sorry about that.
As I stated, I couldn’t tell you what 2023 was like for me. For the purpose of this exercise, I actually scrolled back and turns out, things happened, more or less.
I completed another editing pass on my current WIP, as it “celebrates” its 4th birthday this month. Four years so far on this thing, and I’m not done yet. My book is an amusing toddler that likes sticky sweet things and drools over clean things, and doesn’t stop talking when it’s time for bed. Meh!
I challenged myself on a short story that took a real weird turn and can be found in this fantastic, money-raising anthology. I like it, but I’m still quite “meh” about it.
I met a bunch of my #5amWritersClub friends in-person. Much better than meh!
I learned about how my aging body is now helping add pages to my medical file. I’m grateful that there’s nothing fatal or horrific, but easy things are getting harder. Wow… thanks. Very meh.
My day gig took a surprising right turn and I have a new outlook for what I think will be the final chapter for me. That’s nice. A good meh.
Family is doing great family things. All good there. The best kind of non-meh there is.
All in all, not bad, I guess. Still feels like a meh. What’s up with that?
Am I setting 2024 up for a big victory or another meh?
I enter 2024 with a goals and resolutions! Granted, it’s a list that looks like a football play designed by someone who never watched the game, but was told to draw X’s and O’s and curved motion lines behind them. Not sure if I’m going to improve my health, and best my previous number of books read, or I’m going to spin around in a circle until life broadsides me, sending me careening out of control.
Some people don’t believe in new years resolutions or goals. They prefer to be their own WIP, constantly measuring and assessing, or hopefully killing it all the time every time. I know some of these people personally, and trust me, they know what they’re doing. That’s not me.
I thrive on the celebratory, the significant, the symbolic. 1/1/24 is so clean and neat, it’s the most reliable do-over that we get in our lives. I need that official something to help kick it off and measure my progress. Each year, we run a 365-day marathon (366 this year) that every day counts. That is the most important thing to remember about these lists we make each year: it is a marathon. You might be in different shape on March 17th, wiser on July 9th, and possibly filled with regret on January 4th. Set a goal, break it down into 366 consumable and practical steps, and just do one at a time.
Don’t drink soda. → Don’t drink soda this month. → Don’t drink soda this week. → Don’t drink soda today. → Don’t drink soda at my next meal. →Don’t drink soda.
See? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
(Also, lemonade is not a great alternative to soda. Try water.)
((Also also, strive to write those goals and resolutions with positive terms of what you will do, not won’t do. That’s like saying “don’t look at the shiny thing” and all you can do is stare at the shiny thing.))
Unfortunately, one thing I can’t write on my list is “Don’t have a meh year.” Meh is a review after it happened and not something people strive toward.
When I reach December 31, 2024, will I resemble the successful person I want to be? No idea, but if I come close, if I accomplish one of the many goals I’ve set for myself, chances are it might be a good year and not a meh year.
Write on, and Happy New Year.
Don’t like the current use of meh. My favorite is MEH as in my initials