17 More Days Before the End of the Decade!

Can you believe it?! 17 more days and a new decade begins!

A decade ago, I was nine months pregnant with LilDude and scared to death about what would happen during his delivery since he had been diagnosed as having MDCK in utero (Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney, which is when one kidney (or both, which would prove fatal in many cases) doesn’t develop as it should with the special filtration cells and instead just develop a bunch of cysts filled with fluid). So I didn’t really have much planned for the year except to be a mother one day at a time.

For the coming decade, it’s time for me to create a vision board with LilDude and see where we want to go. That way we can work together toward the same goal, whether it’s moving into a bigger house, trips to New York and Washington, DC and me making more money each month with my books.

So far, my plan is to write four more books in A Different Kind of Love series (Sarah and Benny’s second book, and then Gabe, Todd, and Daniel) with the fifth one a huge maybe (Dax and Harlow) which would formally close the series. It will be tough saying goodbye but everything has to come to an end.

Gareth’s book (Loving Ashe Trilogy which was later renamed Celebrity series) also is due to be written this year. He’s waited over two years for me to revisit him and I want to dive in. So if you’re on Wattpad, you just might get the first look at the book coming together!

Unfortunately, Naughty Pen has her own series to finish that’s long-overdue as well. I’ll be writing and releasing it serial style the way I did the first part of the series. With my crazy life, I’ve come to realize that I like writing episodal fiction and it’s more do-able.

It will take some juggling planning and so I’m setting up an author Kanban board that I’m learning how to create from Heart Breathings on Youtube. After the disastrous results of all my goals this year, I need help with planning 2020 and that includes learning which books are a priority for me and which aren’t.

I actually don’t have any room to create a real Kanban board in my house since we’re in the midst of renovation but there are virtual kanban boards you can use like Trello which is more popular. But it turns out I have had a lifetime subscription to one for the past year and keep forgetting about it. But that’s the problem with virtual boards that live on the cloud. If I don’t see it, I forget it.

However, I plan on using it (in lieu of a real board that’ll only be set aside during the renovations) because thanks to Sarra Canon’s Heart Breathings, I’m finally learning how to use it for my goals in 2020 and beyond.

It also means splitting the year into 90-day increments to make it easier for me to handle. If I don’t reach one goal in the first 90 days, it can be moved to the second 90 days. I wrote about the 90 day year here and while I’ve been doing that, I didn’t have a visual chart to tell me what I needed to work on. So I was still scatterbrained most of the time. Putting the Kanban board and the 90 day year together will certainly help me become more organized.

And after learning what my top 5 strengths are (which ended up contributing to my feeling of helplessness and loss for most of 2019), here’s to a stronger 2020 for me.

In fact, one author I admire reminded me to pick ONE WORD for 2020 and I chose COURAGE. Courage to let go of the things and people that don’t serve me, move on and do the things that scare me.

What about you? What are your plans for the next decade that starts in 17 days?