Keep the Promises You Make to Yourself

Some promises take longer to keep than others but promises you make to yourself are important. Promises for me come in different forms. Goals I set for myself every year. Daily, weekly, or monthly promises I’ll make. They’re easy to off handedly say, “I’ll read more this week.” Or “I’ll watch what I eat.” Even promises to take better care of yourself are easy to think and forget. This year I’m doing a better job at keeping those promises I made to myself.

Copyright JanPietruszka from Bigstock

The first promise I make to myself every year is to lose weight and get into better shape. But this time the promise had another one attached to it. Something I desperately wanted to do but not if I was overweight. So maybe that promise was promise number one. In any case, I’ve stuck to my weight loss plan because I had the other promise in mind. The Supernatural convention in Toronto this year has been a goal since I found out they had the conventions in Toronto. This year’s is even more important because they aren’t coming back to Toronto next year. I didn’t know this when I made the initial weight loss goal so I’m glad I stuck to the weight loss plan all these months. As of last weigh in I’m down 42.6 pounds. Those photo ops I have planned should turn out really well!

Another promise I make every year is to save money. But what does that look like? How much money? I tended to be vague but this time I knew I needed the money for something specific. The Supernatural convention. Targets help a lot. I had a weight loss target for a specific date so I’ve stayed on track. I had a monetary target so I could go to the convention and do the photo ops I wanted so I went without shopping, specialty coffees, buying lunch at work so I could save.

I promised I would actually publish something longer than a short story. I still haven’t done that yet but that’s in the works. Success at publishing can’t happen unless you release your work into the wild and let people read it. For the longest time I’ve been concentrating on getting words written. Have to get more words done. Have to write when I get home. Have to take a week off to write. But I wasn’t revising works that were already written and releasing them. After a talk with my husband and a good friend who is also a writer I realized I’m afraid to release something in my name. I have over twenty stories up under pen names. But only four short stories under mine, three of those are in anthologies. I made the decision to work on revisions of two completed stories so I can release those. Then I’ll work on new words.

I promised I would read more this year and so far I’m on track but I’m still behind where I wanted to be. So far this year I’ve read two books. I was hoping to be at four by now at least. The year is still young and I can do more to read more.

What promises have you made to yourself? Are you keeping them?

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I have a new story out in an anthology! The Newcomer has twelve science fiction short stories from authors across the globe.

From a young couple struggling to look after their baby to a new captain’s reluctance to take command of her ship, and from a sun-addled stranger’s appearance in town to the emergence of a sentient AI, the twelve tales presented here explore the central theme of an arrival by someone or something new. There’s even an alien puppy.

The stories are:

Tithe by Griffin Carmichael
Exodus by Alec Hutson
First Bonding by Tom Germann
Ice Dreamer by J J Green
The Nanny by Cindy Carroll
Right Hand by Jonathan C Gillespie
What Make is Your Cat? by Richard Crawford
Kaxian Duty by Cherise Kelley
Lessons Learned by J Naomi Ay
The Humra by Laura Greenwood
The Hawk of Destiny’s Fist by James S Aaron
Repulse by Alasdair Shaw