I’d call it the theme of the day, the theme of last week—maybe my whole January.
I came up with the theme of the month while watching both Pioneer hockey games the final weekend of the month (check the box score and see if you can guess when our goaltender got hurt on Friday (glad you’re back, Johnny!)). There at the nail-biting end of Friday’s game, it looked like we were heading for overtime. After being ahead for two whole periods and the beginning of the third, there was a chance we’d see the lead slip through our skates. The Pioneers held on and came out on the other side with a hard-earned W. On Saturday, after three scoreless periods, the Pioneers scored the only goal of the game, in overtime, earning the sweep at home.
In sharp contrast to the Avalanche on Saturday and the Pioneers on Friday, I didn’t have a strong start prior to January. I didn’t feel like I was ahead; I felt like I was fighting from far behind, losing time.
Going into 2026, I planned to undertake one of my most ambitious rewriting projects ever. I would take a novel draft of over 100k words, rewrite almost every chapter with substantive character changes and plot fixes, then streamline it to 80k words by the end of the month. Not only that, but I planned to make a website and get business cards by the end of the month too.
I’m proud of my work, but I’m not proud of how much grief I gave myself every step of the way. I was hard on myself for the days I didn’t get “enough” done, the one day of each week I rested, the days I struggled to get to the page, the times I struggled to solve problems, how long it took to check items off my to-do list.
Don’t ask me how many hours of sleep I averaged in January, but I accomplished my goals. I have those business cards, and you’re probably reading this on my website. But best of all, I managed three revision passes, each more nitpicky than the last, through my whole manuscript.
As February begins, I’m reminding myself that a win is a win.
