Christmas is past (I got a TOASTER!) and New Year’s has not yet come. This is when it’s natural to assess the previous year and plan goals, hope, dreams for the upcoming year.
Apart of me is like booyah, goals are awesomesauce! And an entirely different part of me is repelled by the whole process, keeps hanging its head like Eeyore and letting loose a moping, why bother? (My mood is very transitory at the moment and will probably be completely different in an hour.)
I don’t really want to present a statistical list of 2010. It was what it was with really low lows and really high ups. Assessing the year would be a very messy process and I don’t want to get my shoes dirty, thank you very much.
I’m all for goal setting — with the stipulation that goals actually get completed. Looking back at the goals I set for 2010, I see that I didn’t complete even one of my goals. How sigh inducing.
It would be easy though to take that little fact and use it as an excuse to get all depressed and not bother setting goals for 2011. However, that would negate the other fact, which is that I’ve actually been working my ass off this year — it’s just that at some point in the year my goals shifted and new priorities came up and things looked different than they did in January. My desire to finish my novel switched to a desire to complete enough poetry for a chapbook (still working on this one). My desire to run a half marathon was replaced by a desire to work my way through the 28 day yoga book (which IÂ did accomplish). It would be ridiculous to judge myself based on a list that doesn’t meet my needs now.
So, here I go. Here are my goals for 2011, stated here in the full knowledge that things will change, priorities may shift, and this list of hoped-fors may completely different a few months down the line.
2. I will aim to have at least two submission of either poetry or fiction out in the field while working on a third. The idea is to keep pressing the market, thus bringing me closer to my long term hope of actually making some money at this writing gig.
3. I will take my laptop in and get it fixed and/or buy a new one. This not being able to write on my own time and terms is unacceptable.
4. I will assign a day of the week to go to a coffee shop or the library to write. Preferably this will be on some short story or on whatever novel idea I’m inclined to work on.
5. I will get together with my friend Juliette and work together with her on this musical idea that we’ve been talking about doing for a year now.
6. On January 3rd when registration opens up, I will sign up for the Disneyland Half Marathon. Thus having already having paid my money, I will have no choice but to train for the event I know I’m going to.
7. Keep sketching, writing, collaging, dancing, in otherwords, keep creating in some way or another everyday.