I know I’m not the only one. I don’t have all the time I want to devote to all the ideas and projects I have, and (even worse) are the days I have the time, but not the energy. I’ve felt pretty lousy about that lately, but with a new year comes new perspective.

Persistence.

That’s the lesson I’m supposed to be learning and following this year.

And so, I’m embracing the challenges and remembering to breathe. I’m also not beating myself up for not getting projects completed as quickly as possible. Everything will happen in its own time.

I’m not even doing the whole resolution thing this year because I don’t want to put that sort of pressure on myself. Forward motion, persistently moving forward, that is the theme for the year and my one Big Huge Audacious Goal.

What’s yours? Did you make resolutions or, like me, are you striving to put one foot in front of the other and just get there?

The spammers have most definitely found me. I think the part that makes me sad is that it’s not even creative spam. I dutifully go through my spam comments daily though, in hopes that someone didn’t leave a real comment that got lost in all the spam.

They’re a plucky lot, spammers, aren’t they? I mean, they know about all the technology developed specifically to keep their grammatically incorrect, nonsensical messages from reaching human eyes, and yet they still plod along, every day, submitting, submitting, submitting.

Maybe I need to take some lessons from them. Not the part about annoying the crap out of people, but definitely the part about not giving up.

It’s easy to give up, whether you’re writing or doing something else. It’s easier to just accept failure from the outset than to try and – heaven forbid! – succeed, if even by accident.

For years I gave up without even trying.

“No one is going to want to read anything I’ve written. Who am I kidding?”

But that wasn’t true. And the more I persist and strive, putting the proverbial pen to paper, the more I prove those early beliefs wrong. I think we all need that reminder now and again, since it’s easy to forget.

Home, family, writing, work, laundry, blogging, dogs, cats, kids, more laundry, dinner again? I think we all have the problem of balancing everything. As busy as we’ve all gotten, sometimes I feel like one of those plate spinners trying to keep all of my various responsibilities spinning instead of falling.

Do I sleep now, or finish this chapter? How many times can I wear that without becoming a walking biohazard? Wait, this show airs LIVE every week???

It’s tricky, but I’ve found that setting my priorities and sticking to them really helps me to keep all those plates spinning. And the more mundane things (laundry, anyone?) I do while I’m waiting for other things.

Every now and then I find a new priority and everything has to shift a little bit. Is it a perfect system? Of course not, that’s why sometimes we’re all back to spinning plates. But I just remember to be gentle with myself and that we all have the same 24 hours to fit everything into.

What are your secrets for balancing everything? Just because I’ve got a system doesn’t mean I’m not open to suggestions!