2024: Putting Myself Out There and Clearing My Plate

Happy New Year!

2023 is now behind us, and I can’t help but say “good riddance”. It was a rough year for me, and I know I’m not the only one who felt that way. Mentally, emotionally, financially, and creatively 2023 felt like the year I hit several new low points. I’m all too happy to close that book and look toward 2024 with more motivation and optimism (especially after finally taking a proper and much-needed vacation last month).

Going into 2024, I’ve opted not to set super-specific goals. I know things like SMART goal setting are hyped up a lot, especially around New Year's, but I’m not sure assigning specific numbers and milestones to things is going to work for me right now. I always find myself getting discouraged when I fail to meet certain benchmarks and deadlines that I set for myself, which ends up meaning I give up and feel bad about it for months afterward. I don’t want to do that to myself this year. Instead, I’m setting my goals very loosely into two main categories: “Putting Myself Out There” and “Clearing My Plate”.

Clearing My Plate

There are two things I happen to like a lot: lists and collecting things. Unfortunately, it sometimes starts to seem like I like to collect things and make lists of things more than I like to do anything with them. Of course, then I end up with two problems:

I feel bad about not getting around to any of this stuff.

I have more stuff than I have space for.

That second problem has been particularly on my mind lately since I am hoping to move sometime in the next couple of years. If I do, there’s a chance that the move will be a big one (like – cross-country big), and I feel like I should probably start trying to downsize my dragon hoards a little bit to lead up to that.

So, in 2024, I want to bring these lists and piles down a bit. The craft supplies and patterns I’ve accumulated, books I’ve bought and never gotten around to reading, the mountain of comics in my bedroom, the video games sitting on my switch and my Steam account, the shows and movies on my extensive “To Watch” list – I want to get some of these moved from a “to get around to” to a “finally got around to” list.

Putting Myself Out There

2023 was an up-and-down year for me creatively. Sometimes I’d have a burst of energy where I’d start trying to put as much out as possible, and others I’d be stuck in a state of burnout, exhaustion, and low inspiration. While I did share some pieces both on vocal and on my ko-fi, I didn’t enter as many challenges or submit to as many publications as I would have liked to. I also didn’t apply for many TTRPG opportunities or get as much gaming content out as I thought about or started working on. Somehow, I always seemed to be able to talk myself out of it or not be able to force myself to finish something ahead of a deadline.

I want this year to be different. I love writing and game design and the excitement of putting something out in the world and I don’t want to allow imposter syndrome to stop me from doing so. I’m approaching 2023 intending to get more of my work out there (and maybe making a little bit of money from it). I don’t want to set goals for specific amounts of publications or readers or anything since those are not things I can fully control, but I am setting a goal to be more confident and consistent.

I want to share writing on both Ko‑fi and Vocal more consistently (I’m hoping for at least once a week, but we’ll see how things play out). I want to submit more stories and poems to magazines and anthologies (and hopefully some might get published). I want to make more progress on the big Kingdom Hearts-inspired TTRPG I’m working on. I want to enter more game jams and put out more TTRPG content on Itch and Ko-Fi. If there are calls for pitches or applications for other TTRPG projects, I want to have the confidence to throw my hat in the ring. I want to enter more challenges on Vocal, both official and unofficial (and maybe actually win some).

I love to write and, despite the anxiety that often comes with it, I love to share my writing. In 2024, I want to have the confidence to do that more.

Conclusion

So there you have it. 2024: the year for putting myself out there and clearing my plate. How much progress will I make? I guess we’ll have to see. It certainly wouldn’t be the first year I’ve told myself something like this at the beginning of the year only to have all of my plans fall apart as time goes by. January has already been a bit of a difficult month, with unexpected life things throwing off my writing schedule. But I do hope that I can manage to stick to these resolutions, even if there will likely be some speedbumps along the way.

It may be too late to wish anyone a Happy New Year by the time this goes up, but I will do so again anyway: Happy New Year! Whatever your goals are for 2024, I hope you find ways to be successful in them.