#NewYearBooks Final Check-in

Happy February! Did your New Year get off to a good start? What books helped you reflect, re-examine, and resolve your thoughts about 2016?

The New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge started my year with a burst of creativity and compassion — and the combination made me feel contented, much more than I expected. I didn’t complete all of my challenge books, but I’m very happy with where these books took me in January, setting me up for a terrific 2016!

If you read any books in January that helped with your New Year goals, resolutions, and projects, please link their reviews in the link list below for the rest of us to learn from, too. If you participated in the New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge and want to wrap-up the event in a post, please link that, too.

Here’s my final progress report:

Karen Armstrong, The Charter for Compassion, TED Prize talk

Notes taken from Karen Armstrong’s TED Prize talk: The Charter for Compassion, delivered in February 2008.

Resolution 1: Kick my addiction to outrage. The book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong really helped here. I quit seeking out things to be outraged about. When I encountered outrageous things, I managed somewhat more grace in handling them so that I didn’t increase my own outrage rendering me ineffective.

I’m looking forward to continuing to improve in this area in 2016. I’ve set up a year-long project called Compassionate Sunday to explore each of the Twelve Steps more deeply — 12 steps, 12 months, 52 weeks of Compassionate Sundays. You’re welcome to join me in small or big ways during that time. Check out the details on my review of the book.

Resolution 2: Write a travel article. The Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing by Don George is inspiring. So inspiring that I kept stopping to write so I’m only about half-way through the reading. I bought a copy. The initial exercises, especially, are ones that I expect to repeat over and over again.

Resolution 3: Learn about the e-book business. Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant helped in the best way — I decided that I wasn’t ready for this yet. I have so many ideas and projects (see Big Magic below), that it is truly a blessing when I can let something go. The authors made it clear that this business works for prolific writers. So far, I’ve proven to be prolific in blog posts, journal entries, and Facebook status updates. I’m not at all sure that will translate into e-books. Until I’ve determined that it can, this resolution is on hold and Write. Publish. Repeat. will remain a DNF.

Resolution 4: Be more creative. We had our fifth and final discussion for the Read Along of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert yesterday about trust and creativity. I confessed to my fear of drowning in my creativity and declared four fiercely creative projects, three of which will make appearances on this blog. Watch for the first later today–if you have ever given a poster session or done a table display for a conference, you can help me!

I wish each of you a wonderful 2016! Thank you for playing along with this year’s New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge.

Comments

#NewYearBooks Final Check-in — 4 Comments

Laurie C on February 2, 2016 at 9:43 am said:

I read Big Magic, and had hoped to be more active in the Resolution Reading Challenge, but I’ve become unexpectedly unemployed, so job searching has been taking up a lot of my suddenly increased amount of free time. Thank you for all your event organization to try to get us off on the right foot for 2016!
My New Year’s resolution was to Think Positive, so the book I read for the Resolution Reading challenge was to help me in the job search, Brag: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus. It’s a quick read, and I found it helpful. I have been working on the exercises that she recommends, such as creating a “Brag Bag” and answering the questionnaires from the book to develop into customized “bragologues”.
http://www.peggyklaus.com/books/brag-quiz/

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- Joy Weese Moll on February 2, 2016 at 11:39 am said:
  
  Brag sounds really helpful — especially during a job search. Good luck!
  
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Serpent on February 2, 2016 at 10:22 am said:

I’m almost done with Red Moon by Miranda Gray, about the power of the menstrual cycle. Still have some reading left, though tbh it’s mostly for the sake of completeness, like going back where I skipped ahead to a more interesting part.

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- Joy Weese Moll on February 2, 2016 at 11:45 am said:
  
  Red Moon looks like the book I wish I had in my twenties when I was working through my identity as a woman. For a few years, I charted my cycle with the moon phases and it was a powerful thing for me.
  
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