Setting goals and assessing progress with Future Me
The joy - and sometimes pain - of receiving letters from my past self.
I’m a big fan of the website Future Me. For over a decade, each December 31st or January 1st, I have written myself a letter to be delivered one year into the future, in which I set personal and career goals. When that letter is delivered on December 31st, as last year’s was this morning, it gives me a chance to remember where I was last year and what progress I’ve made - or haven’t.
For many years, getting those letters would make me cry, because they were about achieving a work/life balance, and I kept failing at it.
This year was the first year in over a decade where I haven’t had to go straight from finishing one book under contract to starting the next. While it’s made me anxious not to sell a book this year, I’ve used the time to play and explore. I tried writing a picture book, but have realized that’s not my strength - or at least it isn’t yet. I need to try writing a lot more.
I’ve been working on a non-fiction graphic novel idea that I’m excited about, but after working on it with a narrow focus for months, I realized I have to expand the scope of the idea. Will definitely be getting back to that at some point.
After writing Some Kind of Hate, I realized I needed to find my inner funny Sarah again, so I took an improv class. I had a blast and made wonderful new friends. (Love you, Nick Assunto and the Improv crew!)
That led to taking a screenwriting class, which helped me to think more visually and flesh out some ideas for the co-written YA project that I hope to be able to share more news about in the not to distant future.
While I haven’t sold anything this year, I have rediscovered the love of writing and creating, which the process of research and writing SKOH on top of a decade of back-to-back deadlines and dealing with the loss of both my parents had sucked out of me. That was an important professional goal to achieve, even if it hasn’t resulted in a new book contract this year. I’m going into 2023 feeling much stronger and less like a wrung-out rag.
Two things stuck out from my letter from 2021. First, my personal goals and priorities:
I’m still working on all three of these. I definitely spent more time with family, friends, and neighbors this past year, and entertained more in 2021 than 2020 for obvious reasons - but still want to do it more.
The listening and compassion part has become easier the less time I spend on social media. I hate what Elon Musk has done to Twitter, but cutting the time I spend on there has made me happier and more focused. Every time I catch myself mindlessly scrolling on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, I’ve put my phone down and picked up a book, because I realize that makes me a lot happier, too.
As a Type A list-making overachiever type, learning to go with the flow has been challenging, and in 2021 I went too much the other way by being afraid to plan anything. I’ve worked on that in 2022 and am currently planning my long-belated Bat Mitzvah for 2023. Better late than never, right? I also hope to travel more.
One thing I was really afraid of on Dec 31st 2021:
I’m happy to report that The Writing Assistant is still with us! He can’t hear anything, his sight is failing, he’s got Cushing’s Disease and arthritis and an enlarged heart, but my little old man is still by my side!
I am still treasuring each day with him. He just had to have a whole round of testing, and the vets said that he’s in amazing shape for a 15 year-old dog. But he’s 15. I know small dogs tend to live longer than big dogs, but still…I know we’re on borrowed time.
So I’ll often I stop working and just pick him up for a cuddle, and don’t reprimand myself for taking a Benny break. I got him a stroller, so he can rest his legs on the uphills when we go for walks around the neighborhood. He spends a lot of time sleeping, but once in a while he gets excited and runs around the living room like he’s a puppy.
He’s young at heart if not of body, just like me.
I’m going to write my letter to be delivered on Dec 31st 2023 now. I wish you all a very Happy New Year, filled with the kind of joy this daughter and dad had during the intermission of the Hip Hop Nutcracker yesterday.