![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I hate making resolutions for the New Year, since resolutions are made to be broken. Especially if you are like me and have lofty goals that depend on being your best self every day of the year and every day being the most productive day. It’s the perfect blueprint for failure. For example, resolving to post every day of the year is a fail trap waiting to happen (and it usually happens way before the end of January). And once I miss a day, the chain is broken; I’m disappointed in myself; and the posting stops.
So this year, no resolutions. What will there be instead? Intention. Planning. Manifestation.
I’ve also picked a word for 2022, a word I want to focus on. And that word is CREATE.
Now “create” doesn’t just mean creating writing, though that is a big part of it. It means creating other things that nourish my soul. It’s about creating structure and organization, creating healthy habits, creating spaces (physically, intellectually, and emotionally) that excite and energize me, creating connections with others. “Create” will be the North Star I’ll use to help me navigate my year.
I’ve made a looooooooong list of things I want to spend my time/energy on. Things that are important to me for a lot of different reasons. Those things will probably take more than a year, but I’m breaking the list down into categories, and then I’ll prioritize each category to come up with which things I’ll tackle first. After that, I’ll focus on and then set SMART goals and/or plans for establishing/solidifying habits. When I finish them, I’ll go back to the well for more. I’ll also be documenting progress in my journals, planners, and habit tracker so that I can see what’s working, what’s not, what might need more attention/effort, and/or what might not be serving me as I planned so that I can adjust.
You might be side-eyeing me right now and thinking, “Barb, those still sound like resolutions with a lot of complexity built into them.” To which I’d say, “Yes. And no.” For me, this is a different way of thinking about what matters and what I want to achieve. It’s a way that makes goals feel more tangible, achievable, and flexible. Something that can grow and change over the year instead of something I’m locking myself into where the only outcomes are success and failure. Something that asks me to keep engaged with processes and the results of them.
I know. I know. It’s mental gymnastics, but creating more productive ways to organize and spend my time requires a bit of rewiring how I plan, how I adjust, and how I succeed. How I think. Maybe I’ll do a check-in at the beginning of Q2 to see how I’m doing and if the new approach is working.
So this year, no resolutions. What will there be instead? Intention. Planning. Manifestation.
I’ve also picked a word for 2022, a word I want to focus on. And that word is CREATE.
Now “create” doesn’t just mean creating writing, though that is a big part of it. It means creating other things that nourish my soul. It’s about creating structure and organization, creating healthy habits, creating spaces (physically, intellectually, and emotionally) that excite and energize me, creating connections with others. “Create” will be the North Star I’ll use to help me navigate my year.
I’ve made a looooooooong list of things I want to spend my time/energy on. Things that are important to me for a lot of different reasons. Those things will probably take more than a year, but I’m breaking the list down into categories, and then I’ll prioritize each category to come up with which things I’ll tackle first. After that, I’ll focus on and then set SMART goals and/or plans for establishing/solidifying habits. When I finish them, I’ll go back to the well for more. I’ll also be documenting progress in my journals, planners, and habit tracker so that I can see what’s working, what’s not, what might need more attention/effort, and/or what might not be serving me as I planned so that I can adjust.
You might be side-eyeing me right now and thinking, “Barb, those still sound like resolutions with a lot of complexity built into them.” To which I’d say, “Yes. And no.” For me, this is a different way of thinking about what matters and what I want to achieve. It’s a way that makes goals feel more tangible, achievable, and flexible. Something that can grow and change over the year instead of something I’m locking myself into where the only outcomes are success and failure. Something that asks me to keep engaged with processes and the results of them.
I know. I know. It’s mental gymnastics, but creating more productive ways to organize and spend my time requires a bit of rewiring how I plan, how I adjust, and how I succeed. How I think. Maybe I’ll do a check-in at the beginning of Q2 to see how I’m doing and if the new approach is working.