This is the first year I’ve felt drawn to a word to describe my intentions, goals, and plans as they pertain to both my personal life and my goals as an editor. 2018 was a big year personally, having given birth to our second child in August. I also accomplished a lot of projects and am proud of the new partnerships I’ve made.
2019 seems to be striking some of the same keys, but in addition to the usual, I’d like my word for the year to focus on evolution rather than staying the course.
My word for 2019: Shift.
Shift describes my plans because although I like the ways things have been, I want to branch out and satisfy my own need to create. That’s why I’m using 2019 to focus on my writing in addition to client projects.
Shift in Business
What does this mean for long-time clients with upcoming projects? Nothing. Nothing will change in your world. I still plan to offer the same services and level of services you’ve come to know and, I hope, love given you come back time and again. 🙂
What this does mean for future projects, however, is that I plan to be more selective and shift what I’m doing.
I took on a lot of line editing projects last year. So many, in fact, that they made up about 90% of my invoicing. While this shows stability in the service, it also means that I’m failing to market everything else I’m capable of doing.
Going forward, I intend to shift my focus on services outside of line editing, which seems to be doing well on its own from a marketing standpoint not only because of the strength of this site in search visibility for relevant keywords, but word of mouth and other referral sources that driving that service offer.
Shift in Writing
Another shift I want to make is with my own writing. It’s no surprise that I’ve worked for so long in fiction and come upon creative clients me from 7 years ago couldn’t have ever dreamed of meeting.
I’ve always had a love for writing, and my editing has focused a lot on very select genres that I also enjoy as a reader (such as fantasy, science fiction, and romance). A shift I want to make personally that reflects this love of reading in these genres is my intent to write for them myself.
Even if this means completing just a couple of short projects, or finally making the novel I’ve worked on come to life through (gulp) very heavy revisions, I want to make some headway and bring something creative to life. Shoot, I’d just be happy making something I wrote in the past sparkle and shine with the same sheen clients get when they receive the edits I make for them! What could be better than that?
Shift in Personal Satisfaction
For too long, I’ve done things that make other people happy. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps I just really like to please others or ensure their happiness. But what about mine?
I’m a mom of two kids now, and while I love spending whatever time I can with them, it’s resulted in some lazy habits I’m not completely proud of, such as Saturday afternoon naps when the baby is asleep and the oldest (who is five) is busy playing. What kind of example am I setting if I don’t take care of me, too?
Going forward, I intend to shift some of that love and willingness to make other happy towards myself. I’ve made some small strides that are pretty unnoticeable, like passing the baby to Daddy and getting in a shower so I can think alone.
However, I’m also taking better care of myself with my diet, and next is exercise, which means being more active with my kids. Since it’s winter, it’s a little harder, but we can all bundle up and go for a walk around the block, right?
Shifting some of my energy to making myself a priority once in a while will, with some effort, make everyone else happy, too, and meet their needs.
Here’s to a new year full of good changes and opportunities!