New Year’s

New Year Resolutions

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

It’s that time again. When we sit down and determine everything we want to change about ourselves, promise we’re going to do it, and then…don’t. In case you missed it there, I’m not a fan of resolutions. I think it comes from working at the YMCA.

People come in on January 1, all full of I’m going to drop 40 pounds in three weeks because I watch The Biggest Loser enthusiasm, and then find out they have to work. Hard. By Valentine’s Day the majority of those folks have given up because they didn’t give themselves a realistic goal. The worst part is, if they’d just gone another two more weeks, they’d break the barrier. They’d suddenly notice they look different, their clothes fit differently and the numbers on the scale would go down. We warned them that eight weeks is the magic number. But at six weeks, they bail.

And we’re all like that. Nobody ever makes the New Year’s Resolution, This year, I’m going to be nice to myself. I’m going to take it easy. I’m not going to judge myself.

Because I don’t really believe in them, and because I never follow through with them, for several years my resolution was to learn to juggle. Which I can now sort of do. For very short periods of time.

This year, I’m ready for big changes in my life. I want big changes, to the point that I may go nuts if some of them don’t happen. For the past few years I’ve been very passive in living my life, and last fall I realized I was over that. So this year I have one of those huge, scary, never going to actually do it resolutions: become the person I want to be.

For the last few years I’ve put me last. Last as a writer because, hey, I have these kids and they need to be fed and the mortgage needs to be paid, so do everything you have to to get that done. But when I was done doing that at the end of the day, there was no time or energy left for me. Don’t get me wrong. Those things still have to happen, but I’m putting me higher on the list. I don’t think Boy or Girl Scouts is going to be happy when they hear that, but they’ll get over it.

So yes, my resolution is huge because being that person means writing more books, selling a house, potentially moving across the country, it’s serious change. But all of it is so that I can be nice to myself. And since nobody else is going to tell you this, let me: you have permission to be nice to yourself too.

Happy New Year!

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2013 Resolutions

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Before I get to the real post, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for making me an Amazon Best Seller! A Season For Romance topped the charts as the #4 Best Selling Short Story Collection. We hit #2 in Germany!

And now, on to our regularly scheduled blog…

Hi, my name is Kim and I’m a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie addict.

It’s normal to watch the same Hallmark movies over and over, right? I mean, you’re all doing it too, right? Looking at each one and saying things like, Oh, it’s The Shop Around the Corner meets Shall We Dance? Right?!!?

I never used to do this. But this weekend I’ve read two Regency romance novels (thanks Sabrina Jeffries, for the lack of sleep) and tonight alone I’ve watched two Hallmark specials.

I’d say I need to step away from the remote, but the fact is, I’m sitting down in the morning and figuring out my next characters and plotting their story. So I’m immersing myself in romance.

I’m also plotting my own life. For the past several months I’ve been putting my life on hold while I tried to figure out where I wanted to settle down. But the thing is, that’s nine months I could have been doing things. And didn’t.

So, although my life is still up in the air, I’m not waiting any more.

Seems like the perfect time to go back and look at the 2012 resolutions and see how I did. If this were the Hallmark Channel, there would be happy music and a guy would wander into my living room, looking lovingly at me. Alas… anyway, here’s the list:

Lose 15 pounds: I gained 10. On the other hand, I’ve lost 10.5 inches overall in the past eight weeks because I finally found a workout that my back can handle. Special thanks to Regan Black for leading me to DDP Yoga. I was losing weight in December, but then went to California for Christmas, and I’m pretty sure I drank my weight in wine while I was there. So, losing weight, or at least getting into better shape remains on the list, but I feel better than I have in forever with this workout, so I’m on the road to success.

Getting more active on social media. Build a following. Adding pages to the website. Writing a book or two: I wrote a holiday novella and published a new book. I go with fits and spurts on social media. I figure if I don’t have much to say, I should keep quiet and not clutter your Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/blog feeds.

Conquer Italian: Not so much. I go back and forth with it, working at it for a few days and then getting caught up in life. Can’t decide if this one is carrying over into this year or not. I just can’t decide how important it is to me right now, which I guess says a lot.

So, for 2013:

Write books. Yes, multiple books.

Continue getting in shape and lose some of the weight. I’m not putting a number up here because the reality is if I dropped a clothing size, I’d be really happy and a healthy size. And since I’m working on building muscle (which weighs more than fat), I’m not sure what the number on the scale should be right now.

Get out more. Last year I joined a trivia team, which has been fun. I look forward to getting out of the house on Tuesday nights. But I need more going on in my world, so I’m going to try to find different groups to try activities with, one a month. We’ll see how that goes since I live in really small town America.

Either land a day job I love or become a communications strategy consultant. One way of the other, I need some steady income, because in case you hadn’t heard, the income stream of an author is not steady. It’s a check every six month sort of thing, which is hard to budget on.

So, those are my thoughts for 2013. 2012 was tough on a lot of us, but I choose to believe 2013 is my year. And yours too! So, what are you resolving to do next year?

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New Year’s Resolutions

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

For about eight years now, my New Year’s resolution has been to learn to juggle. I can “jug.” It’s the “–gling” part I have trouble with. I can get all three balls in the air when I’m supposed to. On good days I can even do it twice in a row. After that, things fall down. Stupid gravity.

So this year, I’m looking for new resolutions. A few years ago, our local YMCA came up with the idea of doing several small resolutions. Things you could accomplish in 90 days. You were supposed to come up with five of them. I had everything from work out more to re-learn French. Hey, I suffered through 11 years of French in school. I should be able to speak it.

Within three weeks of making the resolution, I fell off a ladder, broke my leg and screwed up my back. It – and my ability to work out – have never been the same. And French… well, if you drop me in Paris, I can eat and find a hotel room. I can probably get a date. After that, it’s all downhill.

My pants are making the first resolution for me. Regardless of what my hip and back think, we’re getting back in shape. Period. End of story. This should be an amusing process since every time I try, I have setbacks with said hip and back and end up not able to move for weeks. But Prevention Magazine has a walking workout they swear can help you lose up to 22 pounds in 8 weeks. I may try it. Or I may keep riding my bike in the living room. I’m still working on the plan.

I gave up on French years ago to try Italian, a language I actually want to learn. Rosetta Stone and I are going to have a party… as soon as I buy a new headset with a microphone since the computer isn’t recognizing me with the built in mic (that works just fine when I’m Skyping my dad). Go figure.

Then there are the work related resolutions. Getting more active on social media. Build a following. Adding pages to the website. Writing a book or two.

You know, the usual.

I’m excited about writing the books. Characters are bopping around like crazy in my head. It’s nice to know I’m not crazy when I hear voices; it’s a job requirement! I’m knee-deep in book three of the Heiress at the Door series, with book two coming around for edits shortly. And I’m looking forward to book four, which is jut a glimmer right now, but will take place back in Blakely. No idea if there will be an heiress in that one; how many can there be in one small coastal North Carolina town?

So, lose 15 pounds, write a book, conquer Italian. Sounds like I have a busy year ahead. What will you be doing?

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