2016 is done and behind us. Good riddance too, for a number of reasons; I was at my heaviest ever at one point last year, work (the four-lettered work I try not to mention on here, whoops) got far too chaotic, NaNo ended up being a complete disaster, and a bevy of other reasons that I’d rather not linger on any longer than necessary.

I’m trying to focus on the positive from last year, instead of just the negative, however. I ended up losing a lot of that weight and continue to do so, which is taking time but I’m heading in the right direction. I also managed to advance to the third round of a writing competition I’ve done the last few years, which was encouraging. I met my goal of reading 25 books in the year, even if I finished the last one on New Year’s Eve.

I’ve renewed those challenges, both official (reading 25 books again, trying to write 150k) and unofficial (keeping up with weight loss), and even if last year wasn’t everything I wanted it to be, there’s no reason to not try again this year.

So yeah, bring it on, 2017. I’m sure it’ll end up being a similar mix of personal hits and misses, but the main thing is to keep trying, right?

On that front, today while driving back home from the city after work I listened to a recent episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast featuring Bruce Springsteen, which you can find here. In the beginning, before starting his interview, Marc muses about the difference between being hard on one’s self and beating the $#!& out of one’s self, which really rings true to me as I look back to last year and forward to this one. Some wise words there, and it’s a great inteview, though of course I’m a little bit biased.

A little late, I know, but Happy New Year to all. Hope 2017 is good to you and yours.