New Years Goals In Action

Happy 2025! It’s Soup again, this time brand new for the new year! And today, we’re asking the great question… how have those new years’ resolutions worked out? The answer, well, it’s decently complicated.

After a few days of working with the resolutions, I’ve already modified most of them to accommodate my busy lifestyle. Most of my resolutions had involved at least weekly habits, and with 18 of them, it was not going to be possible to upkeep all of them. So, instead I narrowed them down to two categories.

My first final goal is still to draw everyday, but my goal now is to draw for 30 minutes everyday. I’m keeping track of this on my Instagram (mushroom_soupcat) with a template that you can also find on my Instagram if you’re interested. My other final goal is a new one. I’m hoping to write at least 1,000 words everyday, also keeping track of this on my Instagram. And while both of these goals are fairly lofty still, I don’t expect to fully complete them. I only expect to update them consistently, and at least try every day.

As of January 2nd, I’ve drawn for 30 minutes and written around 5,000 words, 800 of those being for my novel, which I will call Infinite. Because yes, I’m also writing a novel!

These are the four main characters from my novel (their old designs)

I began work on this novel on New Year’s Eve, only a few hours before January 1st as I stayed up for the New Year (on my own, as I always do). I finished planning by January 2nd, and began writing with a group in my area that evening. I have most of the story planned out, but have saved many of the details for me to figure out as I write.

Because of both of these goals, besides writing more, I’ve also been drawing more, as I’m forcing myself to draw at least a little bit everyday (often in the evening, as I forget in the morning). I currently have about 6 different drawing ideas in the works, including a 150 follower celebration challenge for Instagram as well as a few art trades.

What I’ve learned from both of these goals is that keeping yourself accountable with other people, such as a following, is crucial to maintaining a habit. When you have other people depending on your habit, you’re more likely to upkeep it. That has applied to my blog so far, I haven’t missed a week yet!

I also want to mention a few things I’m working on that I’d like some accountability for, since we're on the topic. One is the video game I’m making for school. I just changed the topic for it, and have a little less than a month to make it at this point. I’m a bit worried I won’t get it done, but I’ve just got to push through. It’s going to be a game about mental health and the way school stress impacts it. I’ve experienced this first hand, and will be depicting it through an art student who has schizophrenia. It will be a visual novel, but I’m also going to try to incorporate some elements of other games to increase the ingenuity of the game and hopefully get more points from the judges.

Another is my YouTube channel, which I’m trying to start. As of now, I don’t have much of a schedule, as I struggle making videos, but I’d like to post maybe once a month. I’ll have to see how that works out, but I’d like to keep that going.

The last is my Comic Capstone project. I’ve made the poster, but I still have some other assignments for it as well as the actual comic making. I plan to make a tutorial of sorts both for myself and others, including prompts for comics, as I’m really struggling with what to make comics on. As of right now, I only have one idea to draw. I really need to get some more ideas, because I’m already way behind on the comics.

Anyways, I’ve probably got to get on to doing all of that stuff, so I’ll see you next week. I hope you have a very good day and a good week!