It’s Time to Get My Shit Together
I need to simplify and focus
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I’ve spent the last few days going back over everything I have accomplished in the past ten years after I got a comment on one of my Medium stories from friend and superfan Gene Martinez. I’d spent an entire essay complaining about how much 2022 sucked and moaning about how I needed to finally make some progress in my life after jumping from project to project for years.
He said:
“You better defined your “Brand” in 2022 and wrote some great articles and had interesting YouTube videos. Give yourself credit for that as you go into 2023 with new plans!”
It got me thinking, I did a lot of hustling in 2022, and even though most of the projects are shuttered now, I did develop the Cringeworthy brand, and I wrote at least 1000 words for probably 250 out of 365 days. While those over 100 days were a hell of psychosis, depression, and anxiety where I couldn’t work, I was able to work most days.
I also started a YouTube channel and overcame my fear of being on camera. I intend to restart the channel later this year because I really enjoyed filming videos and editing. It was on the channel that I developed the Cringeworthy brand, before moving it to my newsletter and ko-fi page.
My writing improved massively last year, and I penned a few hundred good pieces that I am proud to say I wrote. I published on Medium, newsletters, and NewsBreak, and even got a piece published in the Penmen Review. I started at least 10 blogs over the year and wrote content for all of them.
I got an enormous amount of work done, and although none of it really paid off financially, it will serve to set me up for future earnings.
So, for me to say it was a terrible year professionally may not be completely true.
Despite the fact that I did so much, I spent that effort in all the wrong ways and places because I jumped from thing to thing so quickly that I never had the chance to make any leeway. It has been more than 10 years of spinning my wheels and taking on things that didn’t put me closer to my goal of earning a full-time income from my writing.
So this year, the thing I need to do is get my shit together and start to focus on the things that both provide me with income and give me joy.
But my professional life is not the whole story. I’ve been struggling since I got out of the hospital for my heart attacks to lose weight and get my blood pressure and diabetes under control.
The problem is my willpower and cold Coca-Cola. I try to drink Coke Zero, but it's not always available and I break down and drink sugary Coke instead. Also, the holidays proved to undo all of the work I’d done before, and I gained weight and increased my sugar.
What I need is a little focus on my diet and life, lose some weight, and get my numbers under control. I don’t think I need a specific diet, just start eating foods that aren’t processed and stop eating all that sugar.
When I did that right after my heart attack, I lost a crazy amount of weight, dropping from 285 lbs. to 240 lbs. Now if I can just drop the last 40, I will be at an ideal weight for my body size. At least, a weight that I can live with.
I started walking again this morning as well, which will give me a little exercise. I may try some low-impact yoga as well, to see if it will help with my back pain and increase my muscle tone.
I need a lot of work.
I need to simplify my work, my diet, and my life, focus on the important tasks and hold on to the things that give me joy.
All the work I’ve done over the past ten years helped me get to a point where I can now focus on a few things, and have more time to spend with my family because isn’t that why we do the work we do as a creative, to spend the most time doing the things that make us happy?
I have a full life and simplifying a focusing with helping me better finish the things that need to be done to make money so I can spend more time with the people who matter.
Life is good!
