Year Zero is Reset Year

[klcthebookworm]

This popped in my head during the first commute of 2020. Part of it inspired by end of the year and end of the decade retrospectives and the argument of when a new decade actually starts. "Let's just not count year zero and use it to prep for the decade." The second inception was my baby sister's pointing out that I need to start finishing projects instead of snowballing more to do items into them. Which considering that the only projects I finish are writing ones and that's only some of them, she's got an undeniable point.

The feeling I want by the time January 2021 is here and I'm doing this again is to feel space and have resources to expand with. Probably with more creative projects but not necessarily tied to only that. So what's holding me back from feeling this right now or all the time?

Current stressors fall under the state of my house, the state of my finances, the state of my health, and the state of my writing.

The house: I paused the back bedroom remodel because I needed to buy sheet rock and also needed to put money other places. So my living room is holding everything that used to be in the back bedroom and I only have a trail through it from my bedroom to the rest of the house. The hallway is holding the rest leaving the doors to the bathroom and back bedroom free. The office is where I'm living more or less and now I have stuffed a classroom inside it for my second job. I decided to reorganize the kitchen and purge things so I can cook more and keep it clean easier. That was supposed to take five weeks from the advice I got, but it took me a month to get through week one. So the Feng Shui of where I live is out of sorts and not helping how I feel.

Reset house = finish the back bedroom remodel, purge stored items, and refurbish the other rooms by moving furniture around, and use all the rooms in my house again.

Finances: I have debt. I'm not listing it out here, but it is enough of a stressor that I took a second part-time job in 2018. I have not made the progress I wanted, so the stressor hasn't decreased.

Reset finances = pay off debts to have that load gone. Increase my savings for emergencies and house remodel and refurbish projects.

My health: I had started going to the gym and see-saw back and forth on eating better, but I was seeing an improvement in my weight and blood markers. Then my mother spent a month in two hospitals and a rehab facility, and I dropped everything that was focused on me. And I haven't picked anything back up yet.

Reset health = go back to the gym, go back to the chiropractor, and eat better.

My Writing: 2019 My Year In Fic details what went wrong last year and how I'm moving forward.

Reset mywriting expectations = stop heaping the output of a lifetime on six months time frame. I'm generally doing a good job meeting my daily writing goals. I just need to stop expecting too much of myself.

These are interwoven. Except writing, I will be doing that to stay sane no matter what happens so I might as well schedule it. House conditions affects health, money conditions limits what I can do on the house, and health issues limits what I can do to make more money. So I have reached the point that I have to stick the dynamite somewhere to end the log jam.

I decided to work on finances for the dynamite. YNAB offered a debt paying boot camp for the first eight weeks of the year. I didn't sign up for it since they are running it through Facebook, but I did decide to go on a no spending fast for eight weeks starting on January 6th. I fitted this idea onto a SMART Goal planning sheet (one sheet! small scale!) and now it's on my fridge door. My end date is February 28th.

After that one is done, I will make a SMART goal for the back bedroom remodel.