The Year I Work My Ass Off

As I so boldly announced in this blog early last year, 2010 was supposed to be The Year Things Happen. Around October I was beginning to fear that I was horribly, horribly mistaken. I am learning, however, that things tend to feel unsuccessful in progress, and as I write this now, watching the hours of January 1, 2011 slip away to make room for January 2, I can see that things did, in fact, happen last year. Last year I:

-picked up 400% more clients than I had in 2009,

-sharpened my business skills, including rate negotiation (always a toughie),

-had my work published alongside several skilled writers in Prayable.com's first book,

-built relationships with several other writers and professionals in both the publishing and film/television industries,

-made it to the top 4% in the Disney/ABC Writing Fellowship, alongside my brother and writing partner, Phil.

Of course, there were plenty of setbacks, failures, and goals that went neglected (the upkeep of this blog, for example.) But that's okay. I've got another year of learning, failing, and succeeding to keep me moving forward. In fact, while sifting through the chaos in the New Year's Resolution quadrant of my brain (yes, it takes up an entire quadrant), it quickly became clear what this year's theme is.

This is The Year I Work My Ass Off.

It has to be. I didn't meet all my goals in 2010. But I did open a lot of doors and started flirting with a lot of opportunities. Keeping up this momentum is going to mean some late nights. Even more so, it's going to mean sharper focus. If this were a high school football movie, I'd bust out some inspirational "go-get-em" type words here, but I don't write in that genre. But whatever. You get my drift.

So here I go . . . and here's to all the possibilities of this New Year, for me and for you.