Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Vol 4, Iss 25: Cautiously Tip-Toeing Into 2024
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Hi friends! I really want to be the kind of person who goes with the flow. The kind of person who will slide gently into the new year and see what it brings. But I’m not. I lack any semblance of chill around the new year and I feel antsy if I don’t have any sort of plan or structure and so I’m no longer even trying to fight it. That being said, the “resolutions” I’m looking at making feel different this time around. Maybe it’s just that while I am making them, I’m being a bit more flexible and gentle with myself and focusing on things that will bring me joy.
You can take a look at my annual goals issues the last three years here:
Those issues also have some tips around goal-setting that I won’t repeat here, but I do have some thoughts to add before I get into some of the things I’m thinking about for my 2024. I talk a lot about goal-setting with my mentees and a few things have come up this year that I have asked one or more of them and I want to share them here.
One: When thinking about this thing you want to do, does it need to be a goal? That is, does it need to be a capital ‘G’ Goal that you announce at the beginning of the year and keep track of? Or is it just something you may want to gently integrate into your life (not that goals can’t be gentle, of course)? You can start most anything at any time and if you start adding every little thing to a new year’s list, it’s going to get completely overwhelming and not sustainable.
Two: Why this goal? Why this thing? Are you “shoulding” yourself, that is, are you doing it because you think you should? Maybe because other people told you so or other people are doing it or that it’s part of the story you’re telling yourself about how you should be? Or are you doing it because you want to? Because it will bring joy or peace or rest or growth or other positive things?
Three: What is your plan for this goal? How are you going to know if you’re doing it? Are you keeping track of it or checking in with yourself or an accountability partner on a regular basis? Is it a one-time thing, like cleaning out a closet or something that only takes maybe a few tries, like learning how to bake a pie? If the goal is to avoid something, like mindlessly scrolling social media, what is your plan for that? Will you use Forest or something similar? Will you delete apps from your phone or tablet? What are you going to do to fill all the time that you will not be scrolling social media? I suggest making a list, because otherwise TikTok and Insta will get redownloaded before January is over.
My ideas for my 2024 goals
It is not yet 12/31 so none of these are written down in a planner yet but here are some of the ideas I’m kicking around for my 2024. These are in no particular order and I don’t even think all of them need to be Goals™.
Get back to learning piano on a regular basis. I’ve already gotten a Yousician account and I’ll start there. I do not yet have a schedule for this.
Learn how to crochet. It was my plan for 2023 but it’s been bumped to 2024.
Get good at making fresh pasta. It was also on the 2023 list but is being bumped to 2024.
Read the entire published works of Octavia E. Butler. Same as above, was 2023, now 2024.
Go outside for 5 minutes every day. There are entire stretches of days where I don’t leave the house. I want to tie this intention to something, like maybe go out and watch the sunset every day. Or maybe make it the same time every day, like 9:30am or something. Having set times for things helps me a lot.
Clean out the office so that Nicole can join me in here and stop working at the dining table.
Get professional photos of Nicole and I taken. We don’t have any nice photos since our wedding six and a half years ago and we got married before Nicole transitioned so we don’t have any nice photos we would frame and hang up.
I have a 401K from my old job that I never rolled over and have been avoiding dealing with so I need to deal with that this year. At least once I deal with it, it’ll be done!
Increase the amount I do Duolingo. Language-learning is one of my happy places and right now I usually only do one lesson a day. I’d like to increase it to 3.
That’s some of what I have for now and I’ll get things sorted this weekend. I would love to hear what goals you have in store and if you’re a paid subscriber, I will totally schedule an end-of-January goal accountability check-in email directly to you if you want one.
Bonus: If you want to hear Nicole and I talk about some of what I mentioned above, check out the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast Episode 4: 2023, Looking Back, & Looking Forward. I hope that 2024 is a helluva lot better than 2023!
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