Back in the end of December I set a goal for myself to write every day of January. I decided to give myself the following options: journaling, blogging, or working on fiction.  I am proud to say that I met my goal!

During the month of January I wrote in my journal every single day. I haven’t done that since my sophomore year of college when I was taking a class for which that was a requirement. I think back then I had to write 5 pages a day.  This month, some days I only wrote a paragraph, but other days I wrote a lot more. I know that because of this goal, no matter how tired I was after a long day, I made sure to journal something.

Sometimes when I journal I write to capture what is going on in life, even if I never go back to reread it. Other times I write to process thoughts and emotions, stressful moments, or new discoveries. Even though most of my life feels controlled by COVID (What mask am I wearing today? How many feet apart can students be this week? When and where can I get my next test? When will I be eligible for the vaccine?), I try to journal about more than just that. I do enjoy writing at the end of the day and hope that I can maintain that habit.

I also wrote 6 new blog posts this month (hobbies, women mentors, reading, habits, inauguration day thoughts, and this post). I never know how much I will blog, as my posts are driven by ideas that come to me and the time I’m willing to spend drafting them. It’s fun to look back and realize that because of my daily writing goal, I was more aware of a desire to create more blog posts this month.

Writing fiction has been something I have wanted to do since I was a child. I haven’t made any attempts to write fiction in over a decade, but this month I put fingers to keyboard and began to sketch out an idea. I have no idea if the idea will become something real, but it is a place to start. I only opened that file a few times this month, but it was a start, and I plan to continue. It feels like a small way that my word of 2021, DARING, is pushing me forward this year.

When you read advice from writers, there are two themes that come out more than any others: read a lot and write every day. I have always been a voracious reader, so I have that box checked. Setting this goal for January helped me tackle the second piece of advice. I plan to continue to write as much as possible in the coming months.