Gratitude and "Grititude" and the Pony Express

And how that and Match-3 games are my goal posts for 2025

Jan 02, 2025

So, if you choose to read you will be subjected to my own personal insanity! You have been warned.

Last year in January, full of hope and blind to the challenges of the coming year, I committed goal making. These were the goals, for those who may not have been with me at the time.

So, the goal for writing was:

1 novel finished and published (it's been half done for 8 years - I need to give the poor MC's an ending!)
6 short stories for anthologies/contests, to hone my skills
4 kid's books written and illustrated (I do my own art, covers, etc)
Write at least bi-monthly for my Substack
And my author websites and author central updated.
Also, to finish the copy edit on hubby's book and get it, with it's new cover up on Amazon to replace the one with the shoddy edit and shoddier cover.
I think that with my other art goals and business goals, and personal goals that I have for next year that I can meet and likely exceed those writing goals!

For Art:

Improve and get truly functioning my Cover Art Gems website and business. Getting some actual pre-mades up, because until now I’ve been relying on Commission only work
Get 5-10 3D products created, promo’d and approved for Renderosity, where I am a published Artist/Vendor.
Get another 50-100 products created, promo’d and approved for Daz3d, where I hope to become a published Artist/Vendor
Create and teach 2 webinars or courses for Digital Art Live (who I have worked with for several years now.)
Dust off my fine art skills in traditional art, as well as digital art and update my POD stores with new art and products.

For Business:

Get my other websites up and functioning for publishing and authoring and direct sales.
Publish 2 videos per month on my YouTube channel, improve what is already there by adding better thumbnails, closed caption and actual links to my other (now functioning!) websites and substack.
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So, as anyone who tries to look up my name can tell...that didn’t happen, at least not all of that happened. But, some other things happened instead (buffalo stampedes, wildfires…wait..we’ll get to that later.)

The novel, I didn’t finish.
I submitted to 6 anthologies":

1 got published (https://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Future-Time-4/dp/1943933111),

1 was rejected (It’s going to become a novella one day),

1 is in limbo (so could still be accepted),

1 was canceled (Not enough entries- it will also become a novella),

1 was accepted (It’s in the editing phase and should come out sometime this year)

1 is submitted and waiting to hear back. So that one was a success.

Beyond that in September I took a “1000 words a day” challenge and, even with some LIFE(tm) problems, I managed to end up the month at 30,877 words. That total comprised 2 1/2 short stories, and one part is a novel in the making. So, not too unhappy with the writing overall.

I also did 35 Substack posts, plus a few notes.

I didn’t finish any of the kid’s books. But the ½ story up above will be a middle grade story when I finish it.
I didn’t get any further with editing my hubby’s book, but I did learn how to use Atticus better which will help me when I dig back into it.

Websites and author central….untouched.

Art and business building was mostly a wash.

I did 15 illustrations for a poetry book, and 2 sets of covers and interior formatting for another client, and a set of covers for a third client.

I also did speculation covers (3 of them) for various potential clients, that they didn’t decide to go with. Such is the artist’s life.
The website went down for my Cover Art Gems, and I still don’t have it functioning again. (Not really the hosting site’s problem, more of an “I didn’t move it to a new host fast enough” kind of thing.)

No 3D assets, and no webinars, no YouTube videos.

I also had a lot of challenges last year. Lost my father in January to start things off, car engine blew at the end, hubby changed jobs, and I was going through VA (Veteran’s Administration) hoops to get my disability rating increased, and radiator hoses blew in the middle. I also started in May learning how to train my service dog with a trainer/mentor. I was also dealing with some mental health issues and to round things out, I fell backwards off my front steps, and while I didn’t break anything I sprained a lot of things, and that really slowed life.

With all of that, I feel like I’m not in too bad a shape goal-wise – I was just a little too ambitious! But, if you don’t aim farther, you’ll never get where you hope to go.

I still like HB90-type planning, but it doesn’t work for me any more as it is (it is a very flexible plan!). So, I’m changing it up a little to hopefully work better next year.

I feel like “Grititude” (I made a new word!) is having the grit to keep going even in the midst of failure or partial failure and snatch some success and significant growth from the jaws of depression and difficulty.

So, now that the report is done and I’ve talked about the grititude of working through a lot of those things, despite the pains, and the gratitude for how much I actually accomplished, I can talk about the Pony Express.

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I’m waiting to be diagnosed (or not) with ADHD. I’ve had lots of systems in place that worked great for me at various times previously. But, this past year broke all my systems (it can happen, they say with enough stress) and so I'm searching for new systems to get back on the "horse" so to speak.

The gamification of plans/goals is all over the internet for the last couple of years, so it wasn't new to me as a concept, but I wasn't sure how it would work for me. I've been a TTRPGr for a LONG time, and that format just didn't excite me for gamification. I've never been into the MMORPGs, either, and while DOOM is tempting to gamify with, I needed something a little less "just blow it all up" to work with!

My favorite PC games are Hidden Objects and Match-3s - again, I wasn't sure how that could work. And then I put a few things together. Horses (any species of) are my "wink" for wealth/abundance. And as a child/teen I loved the Pony Express stories, especially "San Domingo, Medicine Hat Stallion" by Marguerite Henry.

Since I’ve decided to cut my goals down, in some ways, this coming year, my big goals are still going to be around writing and arting. So why not have those goals as journeys for the Pony Express?

I need to remove the negative self-talk about failures. They are only a buggy whip to spur on the thoroughbred of Perfection. If I change horses to a trail mustang instead of a race horse. –Then I have a means of locomotion that is for Endurance! And I can deal with the trail troubles. Surefooted, sometimes slow, and sometimes skidding fast downhill – but still steady (maybe a bit of mule in there!) Stops at the streams, looks at the scenery, deal with all the weather. Be a little spunky sometimes. Trail-wise it watches for snakes, jumps over obstacles, outruns bears!

Thus is born the Pony Express and the Match-3 Game Plan of 2025!

Start from the "Post Office" - project start. And race to the "city" where I deliver the goods and get paid! There will be "Way Stations" along the path where I can get some self-care, and even change horses if I need. And if there are buffalo, or wild fires or other issues (I told you I’d get back to that), I can go around, or even just "let that horse go" and jump on another one so that I keep the forward momentum.

For forming new habits, or building/increasing old ones, I'm using the "Match-3" concept. After all, in those games they just build to higher and higher levels, get new powerups and trophies and if you lose a game, then you just start that game over! I can do that with habits. One loss (habit broken) isn't the end!

That's why I think that Match-3 will work for me. Look for the similar tasks, and do them in batches, just like knocking out the sets of gems/flowers/etc in the Match-3 games. Doing batches will get it done faster. And I expect repeats in the Match-3 games, so doing repeats of chores (like dishes...) is just a thing that happens, it's "no big deal", instead of my attitude currently where it's a total drag.

I currently don't know how to "write it/picture it" So, I'm listing it in Notion for now, with a side of paper journal, because I love my planners too. And that might be good enough. (No whipping the poor thoroughbred!)

Otherwise, the last 1/2 of 2024, I’ve been slowly building inspiration, knowledge and motion towards my goals for 2025. I’m not going to try to start the year thinking that I’m already going to be doing the same level of work that I would be doing at the end of next year. Just like I wouldn’t expect to start lifting 500lbs on day one, when I’ve only been lifting 10lbs all year previously. So, building up my systems and habits, to strengthen myself for later. A marathon, not a sprint.

I’m putting Notion more to the forefront, and trying to reduce some of my other systems that don’t work for me any more. I also still have a paper planner for daily tasks and appointments. And I’m trying to set up databases to track my words/time better so that I can celebrate the wins. I’m also trying to set up better folder systems to track my work and be able to find it again, instead of lost in the bowels of my computer.

I never recovered from my hard drive borking (Sure that’s a real word!) this past year (I have the data, just lost a lot of programs that I no longer have keys for anymore, because they are so old, and many moves ago). So, I may have to mourn and move on (very hard for me to do).

Gratitude and "Grititude" and the Pony Express

And how that and Match-3 games are my goal posts for 2025

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