I started trying something new today. Well, it’s not really a new year’s resolution. It’s more of a new year, new goal. Similar to the last goal, only… Only this time I’m implementing a few tools to try and make the goal more reachable. The problem with a resolution – or, for that matter, a lofty goal with no definite date or milestones, is that it’s easy to cheat. Oh, I can’t do that today, I’ll get to it tomorrow. And suddenly it’s January 1 again and you’re feeling massively guilty while swearing you’ll do better this year.
I’ve known this for a while, so I avoid making resolutions. Better to just start, today, now, than to wait for some arbitrary point in the future. I found and shared a little cartoon on New Year’s Eve, two critters talking. One is moaning about how horrible the future looks, and he doesnt’ know what’s becoming of our world and what fresh horrors are in the air for 2019… and the other one, who is kneeling with his back to the first one, interrupts. “I know what 2019 will bring.”
“You do?”
“Flowers.”
“How do you know it will bring flo… oh.” The first one looks down finally and realizes that the second one is digging in the dirt with a trowel and a packet of seeds at his elbow.
I love the image, and it’s inspiring. There’s a cliched old saying ‘the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, and the second best time is today.’ I was thinking about this as I was looking at bulbs I still don’t have in the ground, and contemplating when I’ll have time to stick them in… they are pre-chilled at least so if I can bury them, they’ll bloom. And as I was driving I was thinking about bonsai, and how I’ve tried several times over the years to cultivate a tree, and failed repeatedly. But this time… I wonder if mulberry would work? I can get scrubby little mulberries.
So I’m planting my seeds now. What will 2019 bring? Only the harvest of what I plant. Seeds sitting in the cupboard in their packets will never bear fruit. They need soil, water, and warm sunshine. They need time to germinate and grow. To untangle my metaphor, I have to start doing things now, one day at a time, and set good firm goals that are easy to achieve – or at least not too much of a stretch. That’s why I started exercising a month or more ago, rather than waiting. That’s why I started my 365 days of art two days before the end of the year. That’s why when I was talking to Amie Gibbons about writing (she’s just launching a new novel, yay Amie!) I didn’t say ‘oh, I get to that’ I went to the App Store and found Wordly, which allows me to track my word count every day. And I decided I need to push myself to a thousand words a day, not every day, but at least 300 days out of the year. I can do that. It’s not a lot, when you break it into a daily goal. That’s usually about 30-45 minutes writing if I have the story in my head, longer if I’m blocked. But I’m not going to force myself to stay on one story when it’s stuck. I’m going to skip around and write what the heart wants.
And I’m going to fail. I know this. But I know it, and I have plans in place to prevent it, and plans to pick myself up when it inevitably happens. I am not a perfect person. I never will be. But I can be a better person, one day at a time. One goal at a time. A few words at a time. A sketch at a time. To keep me from forgetting, I have groups who help remind and encourage me in both writing and art. I have notifications and alarms on my writing tablet and my phone. I’m a scatter-brain, so I have lists and a journal to keep me on track. I can compete against myself to keep this momentum going.
What are you planting for 2019 so you can have a harvest later this year? I’m going to put in a literal garden, too, but that comes later. Don’t try to do everything at once! Add new things in slowly, so you can build on your successes.
Comments
7 responses to “New Year, New Goals”
I’m thinking that the years have become cyclic.
Including our family and the larger circle of friends, I find there are births and deaths, success and failure, and I know where the journey is going, but not when the train pulls into the final station.
I plan to continue to learn new things, to try to make new relationships because part of the aging process seems to include some world shrinkage, and setting the bar rather low, I vow to read more.
23 skidoo
If I really cared about productivity, I’d make a vow to read less.
Not going to happen.
Reading less means writing less. I know it seems counterproductive but for me that’s how it works.
i think tracking my word count would result in horrible disappointment…
We started thinking about what we wanted for the next year in mid-December. And then started implementing it, because why sit on a good plan for two weeks when we can just get stuck in? As a result, Peter has the kitchen nearly reorganized, the pantry and can rack made into a more useful form for what we’re currently using, all the expired stuff tossed, the “We really have too much to use because we had that in multiple places” consolidated, thinned, and the excess given away. (I’ve helped a little, but he’s done the backbreaking bulk of it!)
This is the first year in a long time I started the year off with all the prior year paperwork already organized and filed away, and the new year’s folders and files ready to go. It’s pretty awesome, and it’s making the year-end taxes easier to do.
Whatever else the year may bring, it’s going to be easier to cook healthily, with the healthy ingredients at hand, and it’s going to be easier to keep on top of the paperwork! Which may not be flowers, but if I’m not dreadfully behind and exhausted this year, the plans to have fine bushes of bronze fennel hosting brightly striped swallowtail caterpillars may yet come to fruition!
I need to get my paperwork in order. I made the effort in December to get my filing, generally, done. So now I can move into that phase…
And yes, starting when you have the urge at least gets it done. Plant that fennel!