This first week of 2023 has been one of the most restful and productive I can recall.
For many years, at school and later in my working life, there was a gentle sense of dread as December rolled to an end. Something like start-of-the-year blues.
Given how much there is happening in my life at the moment, I'm feeling quite calm. A few things have been keeping me busy this week...
Sharing my one big goal for 2023
I largely took a break from podcast recording last year, sharing just X recordings. As a creator on Spotify, you get your own version of SpotifyWrapped:
I'm hoping to step into more recordings this year, as I quite enjoy using my voice as a form of self-expression.
This week I made a recording to start off the year, and in which I spoke out loud my one big focus for the year ahead.
I'll let you listen to it if you'd like to, but in short I'd like for 2023 to be the year I write the most words I've written in a year.
You can listen to the recording HERE, one in which I describe my 2022 in a word and in a sentence, as well as sharing my big goal out loud - and inviting you to do the same.
Returning to my local Waterstones
This week I also visited a local branch of Waterstones* and had a chat with the same supportive bookseller I'd met in there a few months ago. I explained to him that I'd been in Spain for nearly three months, and updated him on the news of my completed book.
With the book now finished and released in Paperback, he encouraged me to follow the steps on the Waterstones for Independent Publishers, so that they could stock The Indie Author... watch this space.
*Waterstones is one of the big book retailers in the UK; it is equivalent to, say, Barnes & Noble in the US.
How I view twitter
I've been showing up on twitter in recent weeks, in the way I was back when I first happily joined the platform as a blogger back in 2015.
I opened up an old journal of mine from a couple of years ago, and found some words from Jordan Peterson there waiting for me:
"Twitter's a strange social network. I've kind of pulled myself away from it. It's not an easy place to conduct yourself with as much grace as you might, and I think it sort of rewards impulsivity. Maybe it's because of the constraint on characters, or something like that. So I think people tend to show their worst on twitter, and some of that's a consequence of the structure of the technology."
His words seem as relevant today as ever.
On the one hand, I've since made some deep connections through Twitter. I've made friendships with people I've never met. I've felt connection and a sense of community. Twitter has been special for me. At its best, I really do think it can be a friendly village or town hall for us. That's how I remember it when I started venturing out into the online world, through twitter and my early days of blogging on Wordpress, and that's how I am choosing to think of it, today.
Yes, there's another side to twitter, too. It can be noisy and overwhelming. But I do think there's a specialness to these online spaces.
I'm continuing to feel my way around twitter. It's been nice taking a more gentle and organic approach to how I'm showing up there.
If you're still easing your way into the new year, I don't think you're the only one.
Creating space for myself has been really important. I hope you manage to give yourself what you're needing right now.
It took me three years to complete my book, a reminder of the wise words of Aesop's fable... slow and steady wins the race. 🐌
// 8th January, 2023
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Jas Hothi is a writer, coach & author. With a Masters in Positive Psychology (MAPP), he loves to help folks begin and make progress on their book projects by discovering and utilising their unique creative rhythms. He is also currently offering a free copy of his book, The Indie Author, to anyone who signs up for his newsletter. SIGN UP HERE to get your free copy.
