This has been a long week already, and I’m glad it’s almost over – work has been frustrating, and I’m super ready for a vacation. Thankfully, we leave for Song School in just over a week!

On a personal level this week has been an exercise in follow-through. A fellow Song Schooler on Facebook organized a songwriting challenge for this week in preparation for school, and I decided to join in – writing a song a day for seven days straight. I know that I can do this, because of all the writing I did in February. But it’s still a challenge. I’ve been having trouble with mornings for a couple of months, and my evenings are often full, so I was definitely nervous leading up to this week. So far, though, I’ve managed to get up at my first alarm every morning this week and sit down to write.

I didn’t finish the song I started this morning (in fact, I think I’m going to set it aside and start fresh with a different idea after work today), but if I do manage to finish a song today, I will have hit my 2018 songwriting goal. For the whole year. On August 2. Each of the past two years I have written 20 songs. I decided that this year I’d be outrageous and set a goal of 40 songs. I’ve written 39.

It is a weird and wonderful feeling, following through on a goal all the way to completion. This is not something I’m super familiar with. A lot of my plans are hatched when I’m hypomanic (hi, Bipolar II brain), and they fall apart when I come down, which is really defeating. The fact that I set what felt like a totally ridiculous goal that I’d have toil at all year and probably wouldn’t actually achieve, and that now I’m going to hit it two thirds of the way through the year…it’s pretty unbelievable.

I don’t know that I’ll be able to repeat this in future years, but I’m not thinking about that yet (or, at least, I’m trying not to think about it yet). I’ve been fortunate to have the time in my schedule this year to make writing more of a priority, and I’ve worked hard to actually write on a regular basis (with the help of classes at the Old Town School, in particular). It feels good. And I’m looking forward to coming away from Song School with some fresh inspiration to keep going.