Posted on January 13, 2020 by The Curious Creative
Hi everyone!! Firstly, Happy New Year! 2020 blimey, it seems to be going really fast already! Hope you all had a nice relaxing Christmas. Mine was all good, a humongous Christmas dinner cooked by my Mum and the hubs, visiting friends and generally lazing about playing board games with the kids.
And then all too soon it was back to it, with chemo round 4 on Jan 3rd and after just kind of getting used to the side effects, this one knocked me for six with a whole set of new symptoms, including insomnia! Likes to keep you on your toes it seems.
Finally after a good night’s sleep I was back out in the fresh air!
Anyway, I’ve finally got sorted with sleeping tablets before I really do go insane and have no eyes/energy left but the one upshot of all this, (always a positive to be found you see if you dig deep enough!), was that I finally came up with the ending from my novel, which has been evading me for many months!
This came from learning to add my own novel to my kindle, so on those dark, windy nights, wide awake, listening to seriously the loudest owl ever in this parts, I managed to re-read my own book over a few nights and get back into it.
I’ve now got to get it typed up whilst feeling good again, quickly before I forget it! I also created a whole list of intentions for this year which is a dichotomy of actions pre and post, end of treatment, trying not to be too unrealistic, but I can’t help but just write them all down and hope that I achieve at least 2/3 of them! I think it’s because I love a list!
Just on that, and I know I will be speaking for many creative writers and makers on here, the big question is, have you got your stationary sorted? It’s pretty much the first rule of the New year isn’t it?
We cannot possibly begin without, fresh, white, untainted, beautiful paper to write all our hopes and dreams on?
Well I certainly can’t anyway! So, in my arsenal of stationary products are the following:
New stationary at the ready!
Members of the WOW Team; Clair, Rachael, Kelly, Anna and Rachael… planning 2020 in style!
Now all my tools are ready….and in pristine condition, I feel better putting all my ideas into solid places and can start putting them into action!
I have so many plans that I’m excited about, it would take too long to write about everything, so I’m going to split them up over a few Blog posts instead.
For today’s blog I’m focusing on my first creative passion – Writing! Here goes…
This year I want to continue to improve my content, hope it is striking a chord and most importantly encourages people to take the leap and get creative – that is my number one aim in all of this and always will be! I’d also like to do some more local creatives interviews in March like last year, so if you have an interesting creative story to tell, please do get in touch.
Whilst I can’t deliver these in public at the moment, I do have a secret potential plan, but not going to say too much on that yet until I investigate more and can trust this body to reserve some energy to do it!
For anyone procrastinating about joining such a class, please just do it, because honestly you’ll regret it further down the line and just waste a whole load of time that could be the boost you need and give you some really valuable experience not to mention a whole dose of confidence!
I guarantee going to a class is like writing medicine and will unlock so many creative ideas in your head – there are NO downsides to this, seriously what is the worst that can happen? Everybody starts at the beginning, so it really does not matter if you write only 2 sentences in a class! The point is you will have started, and it will only grow from there.
Again, as soon as my treatment public-jail-time is up, I will be back on it with the other 3 writing groups I belong to, in-fact I suspect my family will be wondering where I am half the time!
For anyone who is brave and more disciplined than me then have a look at Writers online, the digital arm of Writers News who publish a great variety of competitions all the time.
Another good place to start if you are a beginner, is Future Learn, which is part of the Open University. It’s online and a lot of courses are free like this one Start Writing Fiction which has just started on the 6th Jan and runs for 8 weeks (they sometimes let you join late if it’s only just started and catch up) but they start new ones all the time, just use the search tab to see what appeals to you.
Ironically, looking back I don’t think the word I chose last year could have been any more appropriate, although little did I know it when I chose it! It was ‘Value’, at the centre, with all areas of life streaming from that, such as health, myself, freedom, money, relationships, planet etc – it certainly became very central to our lives! If you want to find out how I came up with last year’s word click here.
So, I think that is more or less a wrap on my writing intentions! I do have lofty ideas of pitching some magazine articles too, but know that will take away from my main focus which needs to be The Book, so I am trying to be good and not overload my time!
Plus, this is just one arm of The Curious Creative Club! I have big art ambitions and WOW Wednesday plans too but I’ll tell you all about them in a few blogs time!
Oh, and finally in the spirit of trying to keep healthy, calm and energised in-between treatments, I’ve recently bought Dr Chatterjee’s new book ‘Feel better in 5’ which I’m really excited about purely because of the simplicity of it!
I’ve been a big fan of his for ages, in particular his weekly podcast ‘Feel Better, Live More’ which has brilliant guests interviewed on health and lifestyle in general in a very relatable way, but this book is literally perfect for me and anyone else who believes they don’t have the time or inclination to devote hours of the day to the gym, or a meditation class or to cook a perfect healthy meal with a zillion different ingredients.
The book is split into 3 areas; Mind, Body and Heart (in the connection sense rather than physical) and all you have to do is pick 3 what he calls ‘health snacks’, one from each area, that are just 5 minutes long and commit to doing them 5 days a week for 6 weeks until they become a habit. There’s a menu of about 30 options, (many creative exercises), all very simple and easy to do and he offers lots of advice and case studies of how to make them stick.
So that’s just 15 minutes of something just for you, each day, to make you feel healthier and happier – what’s not to love?
On that note, I wish you a very healthy, happy and curiously creative year and please do share any of your creative intentions below, I’d love to hear what you are all up to!
Until next time…
Juliet, The Curious Creative x
P.s Our first Wow Wednesday meeting of the decade went down a storm last week with 5 new members! To discover more, hit the link and the next meeting is Wednesday the 22nd of January. We’ve got lots of exciting in-between sessions planned too where members share their skills and expertise so why not give us a try? Don’t forget it’s FREE!
Category: accountability, author, creative ambitions, creative dreams, creative goals, creative investment, creative role-model, creative skills, creative thinking, creative writing, creativetribe, curiosity, Curious Cave, Dr Chattergee, dream, energy, entrepreneurs, Feel Good in 5, find the time, flow state, focus, freedom, fun, goal setting, Goals, gratitude attitude, guiding word for 2019, guiding words, guiding words of wisdom, head space, health, health is wealth, Healthy, idea, ideas, inspiration, inspire, inspiring stories, Instagram, Intentions, keeping positive, learning, learning something new, light bulb, light bulb moments, lightbulb, new year, new year goals, new year intentions, Uncategorized, writing goalsTags: 2020, action, blogging, creative coaching, creative goals, creative inspiration, encouragment, health, ideas, Intentions, lets do this, life, lists, new year, planners, Planning, planning 2020, stationary, wordpress, Writing, writing goals, writing tips
Nothing like a list and a planner to help get stuck in. My own intention this year is to start making some actual jewellery again from scratch and try and remember and practice techniques learned over the last 10 years. Watch this space…. xx
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