[GC Insider] Another Year
Where I share the good, the bad and the ugly of my own creative process
Gosh, here we are. 31st December 2023. Another year gone by. And another one to come – which is the exciting bit 😊
Every year I do an end of year review process that I learnt from Marie Forleo on the Time Genius course. It involves listing your achievements from the year and most importantly, writing down what you learnt. Then you move on to think about the year ahead and write down some goals across various categories. Eventually you narrow them down to ten goals and what you need to focus on in the first quarter.
Even though his year has been an unexpected humdinger, nevertheless, I had plenty of good stuff to say. I still have my fatigue but I am a lot more resilient than a year ago. I’ve discovered therapies around stimulating the vagus nerve that have helped regulate my nervous system and I’ve been through a lot of mindset changes.
When I look back at the goals I set for 2023 – I haven’t achieved most of them. At the beginning of the year, I thought my energy was improving and that I could “get back to normal”. By the end of January I had abandoned most of my plans when it became apparent that this wasn’t the case.
My achievements for this year have not been goal-driven. They have been about deep inner change in the way I value myself, the way I love myself and how I treat my mind and body. They have been seismic changes. In writing the review I realised that my most important accomplishments have been the various facets of this inner work, not things that I have “done” or “achieved”.
Although I get frustrated about the things that I can’t do, or the places that I currently can’t visit and experience, I know that this inner change is creating a very deep foundation for the next phase of my life and that I will benefit enormously from it in the future.
On the health front I have had some successes. A year ago, I was pre-diabetic and my blood glucose levels were worsening. I’ve just had a blood test and I am now out of the danger zone and back to normal levels. I’ve lost a few pounds, which takes me back to a heathy weight, and two inches have disappeared from my waist. Thanks to changing to sourdough bread, I’ve also lost my wheat-belly!
Writing wise, I had set out to get a professional draft of my current novel written which I haven’t achieved. But I have discovered its theme and learnt a new plotting method. And I plod on with the draft. It’ll be done when it’s done!
During the year I have given talks about Tales of the Countess to some local Women’s Institute groups, taking my handbags to show them and recounting the shenanigans of my early 30s from which the novel grew.
This Gentle Creative publication hasn’t grown as much as in 2022 but the big triumph is that I am still writing it! I started the publication at the beginning of 2022, wrote a weekly article and in that year doubled my subscribers from 400 people from an existing mailing list to 800. However this year, Gentle Creative was one of the casualties from my energy situation. I paused everything completely from late January until May then returned with two articles a month plus the GC Insider.
When Graham’s accident happened in the summer I again tried to pause everything but the love of all of you, my lovely subscribers, surrounded me and you encouraged me to continue. I have proudly made it to the end of the year still writing two articles a month.
My subscriber numbers haven’t grown as much this year. I’m currently at 918, so a much more modest growth. That reflects the fact that even though I have got back to writing, I haven’t done any promotion or social media. I also think that publishing weekly makes a huge difference. But I’m happy that Gentle Creative is still going, I get some wonderful engagement, and thankfully, despite my trials and tribulations, I have managed to say the right thing to encourage you. This is a lovely miracle.
And if you need some encouragement right now, then have another read of the article I published before Christmas:
Thank you so much for being part of the Gentle Creative community. You have all been such a comfort to me this year. Let’s see what 2024 has in store for us.
Keep plodding gently
Cali x
Cali, thanks for being you! You have made it rather gracefully through a really hard year! I hope to regulate some of the things you made progress on in 2024 too.
What an amazing year you have had and still you have kept writing and inspiring us. Thank you. X here’s to a healthy and balanced 2024. Xx