I couldn’t be happier to see a New Year. 2012 wasn’t abysmal by any measure, but it held many challenges, and I’m calmly enthusiastic at the formal opportunity to begin again.
While many people set their goals for the year right off the bat, I usually spend the first several weeks settling into my thoughts and aims for the upcoming year. My reflective thoughts tend to be like those rubber bounce-balls; when first sent into motion they go absolutely bananas, but they finally settle when they’ve had enough time to burn off their inherent energy, leaving me with the core of what was really in there.
For many years I swore off any sort of goals or resolutions altogether, considering them for stodgy sorts who weren’t as open to the unexpected as I want to be. But I’ve since come to terms with the reality that setting a direction will result in more of what I desire out of life. And rather than feeling staunchly bound to that, I use it as a tool and accept the freedom to recalibrate whenever necessary.
I’ll be sharing more about this in the weeks to come, and would love for you to join me and share along.
I’ve been busy this past week, a situation which won’t abate in the next one, so I’m just letting the following prompts knock around in my head until I formally sit down and think about them (which the Dude and I have scheduled for late January):
- What went well last year? What did I love and enjoy most?
- What wasn’t just right? What circumstances or other life-characteristics do I not want to continue in for the rest of my life?
For now I’m not asking any follow-up questions (like what to do about it), but rather am just letting myself feel joyful about joys and curious about things I’m seeing could use some adjusting. I find that by soaking in just this part for a while, I’m better motivated toward my future aims when I finally solidify them.
…what about you?…
Do you make “resolutions” or set goals right out of the gate or do you wait a while?
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Ugh. Resolutions. I always make them (even though I call them by other names) but I rarely keep them. Honestly I’m just of the mindset that if I want to do something, I’ll do it. If not, no need to have it on a list, haunting me all year long. That being said – the only tangible goal I’ve set the past couple years, and stuck to, was a reading goal. I missed the mark in 2012, but I’m still going to set a goal for this year & I intend to reach it 🙂
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I’m with you. That’s why I’ve started calling them “aims.” It’s not technically all that different, but it strikes a balance between “goals” (which I’ll never meet and will hang around like a wet blanket all year), and not really aiming for much of anything at all.
I’ve failed my reading goals for YEARS now with no good excuse, so this year I’m trying a different strategy: one a week (more or less). I feel like maybe if I have to be reading all the time to even be on track, then maybe I’ll just start reading all the time. We’ll see, lol.