Revising Goals and Expectations

Over the last couple of nights I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I’m sure part of it is due to the crazy summer storms racking havoc in my desert home town. The electrons in the air have not only me, but also my whole family feeling restless. With this comes long hours of lying in bed, eyes closed and my mind fully awake.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a half awaken state of mind I find my thoughts wonder to topics I normally don’t consciously think about on a daily basis. One of the topics my mind likes to wonder to frequently during these times are my writing goals and expectations.

Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’m truly meeting or able to live up to the expectations I’ve made for myself as an author, editor and mother. It seems more and more demands are put upon us as writers, and even as editors, however the days are not longer so we sleep less. With this comes not performing at our desired levels with less sleep so how do we balance these demands… expectations? Then you add in family life and it seems there is no time left in a day to get everything done you need or want to accomplish, let alone good quality sleep. This can leave us feeling defeated, depressed, burnout…among other feelings as well.

I recently read a blog post back in June about writer’s needing to take time out and relax. The post really got me thinking about how I haven’t taken a real vacation in two years. I also started realizing my personal writing goals keep being put on hold as demands to expectations I’ve made for myself and freelance work keep growing. Talk about a combination for writer’s burnout or just feeling overwhelmed with life.

I do feel my life feels meaning full, but I realize I’m not taking time out for me. I’m not setting goals or expectations of better health. This isn’t a good thing. So as I laid awake these past few nights with my mind wondering onto all the things I need to do, would like to do and have accomplished so far, I realized the only way to get some down time was to cut back. Or in writer terms…REVISE my life, goals and expectations.

I’m not sure what changes I’ll be making but revising my goals and expectations will be one of them.

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