Master List of Progress Reports - 2014

2014: Year In Review

I posted 2 chapters in 2014.

Both were for Lights of Life, which was the story I focused on more than any other for the year.

Unfortunately, I wasn't only focused on my writing.

I ended up in the hospital in March with a viral infection, which led to further health issues that I'm still dealing with as I write this (December 2015).

Then in June, I decided to take my jewelry making from a hobby to a business and formed an LLC partnership with my wife called Dasimo Jewelry. Of course, starting a new business takes a lot of time and energy (much more than I anticipated), so it's been a constant struggle trying to find the balance between my two passions. That lack of balance led to far too many months where I only spent a few days working on my stories.

On the bright side, the things I've learned for the jewelry business have crossed over into things I need to know for my writing (mostly marketing and social media). For example, I finally joined Facebook as a first step outside my natural introversion, though I haven't posted much so far (I think I have less than 10 posts since May 2015, but I'm hoping to change that in 2016).

Moral of the Story

Every masterpiece starts out as a work in progress.

Well, my life is definitely a work in progress. To quote Edison once again, "I've found 10,000 ways that won't work," but little by little I'm finding the ways that do. Their common theme is one of patience and acceptance. I'm learning to be patient with myself and to accept there's a lot of stuff I'm not in control of (like my health). Above all, I'm learning to simply enjoy myself and that shift in attitude is helping me to achieve the many goals I have for my life, if a bit slower than I'd like (there's that patience thing again).