You would think that since I have bad days every month, that as soon as I realize that it is not a good day, that I would automatically switch my thought patterns over to, “Okay, what CAN I do today?” instead of cycling in hard on, “Well, I can’t do this today. Or that. Or this other thing.”

*Le sigh*

Don’t get me wrong. I do get there eventually. Internally, it feels as though it takes half the day for me to make the switch. Objectively, it’s probably less than a single hour. It’s difficult to tell, as I just wasn’t processing well yesterday.

What did I do yesterday? I removed more snow from the flower garden and discovered a whole bunch of crocuses. I also have a couple more daffodils poking up above the ground. The iris and anemones won’t start growing for a while. I still cleared off the snow for them.

I went for a couple of walks, looking at the plants on the property. Lots of happy buds on the things growing in the orchard – cherries, pears, apples, blueberries. Lots of the herbs will come back. We’ll see about the borage, bee balm, and lemon verbena. I think the common sorrel made it – not sure about the French. But the oregano, lemon balm, marjoram, lavender, rosemary, thyme and sage all survived. And of course all the varieties of mint survived and are poised to start kicking ass again.

The tea bushes are not happy. They really didn’t like the snow and the cold. Hopefully they’ll come back later this year. We planted them in fall of 2017, and they need to mature for 2-3 years before I can start harvesting leaves from them. So maybe in 2020 they’ll be mature enough. We’ll see. I’m not even sure they’ll survive.

I also made new covers for two book series, which honestly was the most important thing I needed to do yesterday. And I proofed more of an audio book.

For me personally, today is not a good day. It isn’t a horrible day either. Somewhere in-between. Writing 1500 words is my goal for today (unlike a good day, where my goal is 3000). Quite frankly, I’ll be happy with 1000.

Having that sliding goal, based on how I feel, has been crucial for me in terms of getting more words written. Instead of feeling overwhelmed with an unreachable goal, I have a middle goal that I probably will be able to get to today. On bad days, I only try for 500 words, if I can.

Do you have sliding goals? Based on ability? Have they helped you?