A few days ago, I did my report for week four of writing in December. It was probably a little silly, because there were only three days left in the month, and then I'd have to do a full month review, yet I did it anyway. Interestingly, I'm glad that I did, because it wound up giving me something to shoot for.
In that post, I marveled at how well I had managed to keep at it with the writing, even in the middle of a month like December which is always very busy, and I noticed just how close I was to my all-time record for words in a month. I was within spitting distance as the colloquialism goes. It was crazy to me, because it was my very first month of even writing 1,000 words a day.
I said that maybe I ought to try to beat that record, although when I calculated out the words needed to do so, I suspected it was unlikely. I would have to write more for those three days than I had for most of the month. I'd only reached the level I needed one time for the rest of the month. So, I probably wouldn't make it. It was a nice thought, but considering that one of the days coming up was New Year's Eve, it would probably be more likely that I'd struggle to write at all, rather than get record levels of words.
Then day one of those final three days arrived. I found myself waiting in a line that took forever, and I decided that I would write on my story while doing so. I was in a very interesting point of the story, so I pounded away at the keyboard on my phone as I stood in that interminable line, and by the time I was done, I looked at my word count and my eyebrows raised. 1,533? Whoa, that was basically what I needed to take a stab at that record.
So, the next morning, I got on my words early. We were going out as a family to Moody Gardens in Galveston later, so I had to get on it early. Then, rather than quit when I checked my word count and it said I was at 1,008, I just soldiered on. By the time I quit, I was at 1,631. Holy crap, I might actually do this.
New Year's Eve, we were also going out as a family, so I had to get on it early. I jumped up and started writing the very first thing. I didn't even eat breakfast first. I wrote until I thought I'd probably made it there, then I wrote a little more to finish the chapter, and here is what my final chart for the month looks like. Did I make it past my all-time record of 37,710?
Damn right I did. I beat it by hundreds of words. Not to mention my wimpy original goal of 30,000 words for the month, which was just actually meeting my goal for each day.
So, this month, I put in my record effort for writing. That's pretty cool, but I feel like it needs to be something that I build on. Look at my year-to-date chart here.
If you look at the average for December, it's only 1,227. That means that if I upped my goal to 1,250 a day, then I would hit my all-time record for the second month in a row. 250 words is not a lot. It doesn't take that long to write that much, maybe ten or fifteen minutes tops. So, putting in a modicum of extra effort could easily put me in even more rarefied air.
I think I'm going to push for that in January. Of course, again, I have to be a wet blanket. New Years Day is the first day of January, and I'm not sure if I will even get the chance to write on that day. We will be busy. Back in 2020, that was one of the days that I blew it. My entire goal for that month was don't miss a day, and then I missed the damned first day of the month. Way to blow it right off the bat.
I moved forward with the month that year, and established a habit of writing that stuck with me for a long time, though. By the time January was over, I was cruising, and I didn't miss a day of writing until I'd completed my goal for the year. So, even if I don't get in writing on New Year's Day, I won't let it stop me. I guess I'll just do an extra 250 words for five days until I've made up the difference or something.
That's the real key for this whole thing, I think. Never let one day get you down so that you quit. It's just one day. The goal is for an entire stinking year. One day is only 1/366th of that. Insignificant in the scheme of things. Keep going, and you'll make up the difference, whatever your goal for the year is, whether it's writing a bunch of words or losing weight or learning to ballroom dance. Just keep at it.
Perseverance is number one. You don't reach success by shouting affirmations in a mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are. I heard that somewhere...can't remember where, but it's true. Walk the walk and you don't even need to talk the talk. That's the idea behind this process and this goal.
This month, I inched past my all-time highest total for a month. This year, my goal is to beat my all-time highest total for a year. That's why I have this odd number of 304,475 as what I'm shooting for. That's one more than I got in 2020. I'm going to hit it for sure. I'm already at 64,959. I almost feel like I should go back and write another 41 words so I could be at an even 65,000. What does that get me for the year?
21.33%. I'm only 17.76% into the year. I'm pulling away. I used to be behind the percentage, but now it's falling behind me. Next month, I'm going to take it even further.
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