Hello, 2019!
We're on day 5, right now, the snow has finally arrived to stay, and it is almost time for me to go back to work, after a few weeks of being at home and finishing off projects (and enjoying Christmas). I had lots of time to think while mending, painting tea bags and baking Christmas cookies. Would I set myself some goals for the upcoming year? Would I just "wing it" and see what happens?
The tea bag project had me thinking about numbers. If I can drink over a thousand cups of tea in a year, what else could I do, numerically speaking? Draw on 300 of 365 days? Write 50 blog posts? Learn 40 tunes for fiddle and mandolin? Create 10 new dolls? Knit 4 pairs of socks?
The last goal (or intention, as a friend likes to call it) is a SMART goal: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. It is also something I do every year, so I know it can be done.
What would 10 new dolls entail? The ideas for them are already recorded... somewhere in my studio. Making them would give me a body of work, which has been on my list-of-things-to-do for quite a while. The number is less than one per month. OK, I'm game to try, but won't get too upset if I don't make it.
40 tunes? Playing with the local Old Time Fiddlers has made me realize that sheet music is out of the question, so, in order to play with them on stage (which is the real goal), I need to commit those tunes to memory (brain and muscle memory). I'll add them up as I go and see where I get to by the end of the year.
50 blog posts? Might be a bit of a stretch, looking at my past record. Let's see where I get to by December 31. On the bright side, as I was doing my online training over the last two years I had to keep a weekly blog for a few of my classes and managed it. I just need to re-direct that energy and focus to this one. If I'm actually working on stuff, I'll have things to talk about.
300 days of drawing? Egads, I won't have time to sit for a complete drawing every day. What will constitute a day of drawing this year? ✔a quick sketch ✔drawings I do when I facilitate Art Heals sessions in various Northern Health units ✔partial drawings (such as when a drawing takes more than one day to complete) ✔digital drawings ✔plans for projects (dolls and the like) ✔other? OK, with those broad definitions, it might just work to do 300 days.
Oh, and do something (or things) spontaneous. My youngest daughter had that as a goal last year and it took her to Japan. What will my spontaneous thing(s) be?
I've set up a small notebook to quickly tally what I do and when. Otherwise, I might get to the end of the year and wonder if I managed to do what I set out to do. I'm notorious for not keeping up journals and diaries (my poor journalette has seen little attention since it was started), so my tally book is really the bare bones and takes no more than a minute at the end of the day to fill in.
As I do all of this, though, the key is not to make this year's endeavour onerous and to keep the fun in the doing. If I don't reach those numbers, it's OK. I'm just curious to see what I can do.
For now, though, house-cleaning calls. And 46 primed tea bags await attention. Next year's Christmas cards are being made early this year, so I'm not scrambling in December again (at least, not for that reason). The rest of the goals will have to wait.
We're on day 5, right now, the snow has finally arrived to stay, and it is almost time for me to go back to work, after a few weeks of being at home and finishing off projects (and enjoying Christmas). I had lots of time to think while mending, painting tea bags and baking Christmas cookies. Would I set myself some goals for the upcoming year? Would I just "wing it" and see what happens?
The tea bag project had me thinking about numbers. If I can drink over a thousand cups of tea in a year, what else could I do, numerically speaking? Draw on 300 of 365 days? Write 50 blog posts? Learn 40 tunes for fiddle and mandolin? Create 10 new dolls? Knit 4 pairs of socks?
The last goal (or intention, as a friend likes to call it) is a SMART goal: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. It is also something I do every year, so I know it can be done.
What would 10 new dolls entail? The ideas for them are already recorded... somewhere in my studio. Making them would give me a body of work, which has been on my list-of-things-to-do for quite a while. The number is less than one per month. OK, I'm game to try, but won't get too upset if I don't make it.
40 tunes? Playing with the local Old Time Fiddlers has made me realize that sheet music is out of the question, so, in order to play with them on stage (which is the real goal), I need to commit those tunes to memory (brain and muscle memory). I'll add them up as I go and see where I get to by the end of the year.
50 blog posts? Might be a bit of a stretch, looking at my past record. Let's see where I get to by December 31. On the bright side, as I was doing my online training over the last two years I had to keep a weekly blog for a few of my classes and managed it. I just need to re-direct that energy and focus to this one. If I'm actually working on stuff, I'll have things to talk about.
300 days of drawing? Egads, I won't have time to sit for a complete drawing every day. What will constitute a day of drawing this year? ✔a quick sketch ✔drawings I do when I facilitate Art Heals sessions in various Northern Health units ✔partial drawings (such as when a drawing takes more than one day to complete) ✔digital drawings ✔plans for projects (dolls and the like) ✔other? OK, with those broad definitions, it might just work to do 300 days.
Oh, and do something (or things) spontaneous. My youngest daughter had that as a goal last year and it took her to Japan. What will my spontaneous thing(s) be?
I've set up a small notebook to quickly tally what I do and when. Otherwise, I might get to the end of the year and wonder if I managed to do what I set out to do. I'm notorious for not keeping up journals and diaries (my poor journalette has seen little attention since it was started), so my tally book is really the bare bones and takes no more than a minute at the end of the day to fill in.
As I do all of this, though, the key is not to make this year's endeavour onerous and to keep the fun in the doing. If I don't reach those numbers, it's OK. I'm just curious to see what I can do.
For now, though, house-cleaning calls. And 46 primed tea bags await attention. Next year's Christmas cards are being made early this year, so I'm not scrambling in December again (at least, not for that reason). The rest of the goals will have to wait.
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