St Leonards seafront - 1 January, 2013 I don't do New Year resolutions. Throughout my twenties and thirties I vowed every New Year's Eve that from 1 January I'd give up smoking and amend my ways in whatever areas I felt I needed some correction. I generally survived as a non-smoker to about lunchtime, however my determination to wrestle my shortcomings was seldom abandoned so lightly - firm-jawed and with an iron-like resolve, I would stay the course - invariably I made it til at least tea-time!
In my experience, resolutions simply don't work.
I did eventually manage to give up smoking I'm pleased to say, once I realised I had to get some help with it. I think that was the secret - seeking the necessary help! I can't say that I've personally ever got far by utilising 'will-power' to get rid of any of my bad habits. It's more a matter of coming to terms with the problem, and being willing to raise the white flag of unconditional surrender. You see if I believed that it was 'will-power' that saved me from being a smoker, then that same 'will-power' might easily convince me (just as it did for over two decades!) that being in control of my own destiny I could take 'just one puff' any time I chose with total impunity. It is my firm belief that willpower alone is the addict's enemy, and not (as is often believed) his ally.
So what's all this about resolve and determination got to do with my first blog post of the New Year? Simply this, that I know better than to make any personal prophecies about what is going to happen in 2013. It's certainly my aim to continue writing both in novel form and in my blog, I hope to sell some more books and mean to bring out Roadrage very shortly. However, que sera sera - whatever will be will be (better add a note here - a chap can easily give the wrong impression by quoting the lyrics of Doris Day songs!) - but seriously, what I'm trying to say is that how things evolve in this life is, to quite a large extent, out of our control. I plan to get up each day in 2013 (just as I did in its ancestor 2012) and do whatever work lies before me. However, I feel a lot more comfortable when I don't also take on the role of the deity and concern myself too much with the outcome of my endeavours - that happens to be the Universe's business, not mine!
I spent 2012 building a platform for my writing, here on my website as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari and other places on the internet. And I could probably get extremely discouraged if I looked back at how much effort that has taken in comparison to whatever small gains I've made. I read something this morning on Facebook that was posted by a fellow indie author who was bemoaning her fate. I can appreciate her frustration; she has received literally dozens of glowing reviews for her books of women's fiction, yet continues to trail behind the kind of 'fluffy trivia' the publishing houses can be relied upon to churn out and hard-sell for Christmas. If I'd set myself an over-ambitious target at the start of 2012 I'd almost certainly be pretty down-hearted at this time. As it is, I feel pretty much okay about things. Yes I'd be delighted if I'd managed to sell out a couple of print-runs and done a hundred thousand downloads or something exceptional like that! However, being realistic, up until eight months ago, nobody (not even the people who know me) had ever read anything I'd written. In less than a year, with a lot of help from my wife, my son and a few generous individuals, I have actually published my first book and managed to become a small (albeit an infinitesimally tiny) literary presence. Thanks entirely to the internet I have now been read by people who would never have even heard of me before, right across the globe. Frankly, isn't that just totally incredible?
Thank you for dropping by my blog, and for taking the time to read this post. I sincerely hope you'll want to return here again. I wish you and yours good health, happiness and prosperity throughout the forthcoming year.
May 2013 bring peace, hope, kindness and reconciliation in our often troubled world!
In my experience, resolutions simply don't work.
I did eventually manage to give up smoking I'm pleased to say, once I realised I had to get some help with it. I think that was the secret - seeking the necessary help! I can't say that I've personally ever got far by utilising 'will-power' to get rid of any of my bad habits. It's more a matter of coming to terms with the problem, and being willing to raise the white flag of unconditional surrender. You see if I believed that it was 'will-power' that saved me from being a smoker, then that same 'will-power' might easily convince me (just as it did for over two decades!) that being in control of my own destiny I could take 'just one puff' any time I chose with total impunity. It is my firm belief that willpower alone is the addict's enemy, and not (as is often believed) his ally.
So what's all this about resolve and determination got to do with my first blog post of the New Year? Simply this, that I know better than to make any personal prophecies about what is going to happen in 2013. It's certainly my aim to continue writing both in novel form and in my blog, I hope to sell some more books and mean to bring out Roadrage very shortly. However, que sera sera - whatever will be will be (better add a note here - a chap can easily give the wrong impression by quoting the lyrics of Doris Day songs!) - but seriously, what I'm trying to say is that how things evolve in this life is, to quite a large extent, out of our control. I plan to get up each day in 2013 (just as I did in its ancestor 2012) and do whatever work lies before me. However, I feel a lot more comfortable when I don't also take on the role of the deity and concern myself too much with the outcome of my endeavours - that happens to be the Universe's business, not mine!
I spent 2012 building a platform for my writing, here on my website as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari and other places on the internet. And I could probably get extremely discouraged if I looked back at how much effort that has taken in comparison to whatever small gains I've made. I read something this morning on Facebook that was posted by a fellow indie author who was bemoaning her fate. I can appreciate her frustration; she has received literally dozens of glowing reviews for her books of women's fiction, yet continues to trail behind the kind of 'fluffy trivia' the publishing houses can be relied upon to churn out and hard-sell for Christmas. If I'd set myself an over-ambitious target at the start of 2012 I'd almost certainly be pretty down-hearted at this time. As it is, I feel pretty much okay about things. Yes I'd be delighted if I'd managed to sell out a couple of print-runs and done a hundred thousand downloads or something exceptional like that! However, being realistic, up until eight months ago, nobody (not even the people who know me) had ever read anything I'd written. In less than a year, with a lot of help from my wife, my son and a few generous individuals, I have actually published my first book and managed to become a small (albeit an infinitesimally tiny) literary presence. Thanks entirely to the internet I have now been read by people who would never have even heard of me before, right across the globe. Frankly, isn't that just totally incredible?
Thank you for dropping by my blog, and for taking the time to read this post. I sincerely hope you'll want to return here again. I wish you and yours good health, happiness and prosperity throughout the forthcoming year.
May 2013 bring peace, hope, kindness and reconciliation in our often troubled world!
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