Month: January 2021

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Here I Am and There I Go

Having written, graphed, erased, re-written, and put a white board to more use than it expected, visual is not the best presentation for the ideas, ideals, activities and goals I want to pursue 2021. Too much overlap.

The focus is Care. The areas are myself, my environment, my relationships, my community (the world). (Start center, work outward, expect overlap). I have some daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly activities and goals to those ends. These goals, taken singularly, may be that ambitious, but 1. I have been lax (and don’t want to ignore those areas I haven’t been lax in either), and 2. there’s a lot of them. Thus, I commit at least to:

Daily: clean sink, make bed, get outside, read something other than social media. Spend minimum 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays working on the weekly, monthly, and annual activities and goals; it is the time I feel most restless.  

Weekly: exercise 1.5 hours, meditation  1.5 hours, work on creative/skills stuff 1.5 hours, household/yard maintenance and beautification, 1.5 hours. Date night. Call family.

Monthly: friend date night/zoom night/art night; call a friend; write a letter or send a package; post here.

Annual Goals: lose 12 pounds (weigh-in this morning is 157.4 lbs. – the heaviest I’ve ever been aside from pregnancy), read 12 books, make 12 posts (not counting this one), write/send 12 letters or packages,  learn 6 songs, donate or volunteer 6 times, get my passport. 

Next up, I need to figure out how to stay on top of, track progress, hold myself accountable, and have a plan to get back on track should I need it. I’m curious how bullet journals, monks’ manuals, habit apps, etc. have worked for folks, or what else y’all are using to help keep you on track.

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No Time Like Now

Piece of resolution clock - someone wrote "'You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at.' - W.H. Auden"

Good morning, dear ones. Welcome to a new year, if this is when you start your count. I start mine gradually, with solstice until the new year a time for contemplation, and the new year until my new year (January 6th) as a launch ramp.

I am not usually one for resolutions, especially public ones; this year, though, having spent the larger part of last year in unavoidable contemplation, I feel so moved.

There are areas I want to work on,  ideals I want to cultivate, activities  to do so, and goals as a specific way to stick to it. I may need a big sheet of paper or three to sort it all out. I am a visual thinker most naturally, so it might come together as a pie with concentric rings; the slices representing the areas with the ideals next ring out, followed by activities, and then goals. It might come together as connected clouds. It might be a Venn diagram. We’ll see.

I think of it also in this way: Attention, Intention, Action, Enrichment, the last not in a monetary sense but in a stop-wasting-so-much-time kind of way, a being better at being myself, connecting to others, and caring for my community (small and large) kind of way.

It’s coming together in a new way for me. I feel inspired, not coerced. I feel…not-so-guilty for past activity and lack of activity. Though I have them, I am not starting from a place of regret. I am truly sorry to those I have hurt (a few) or neglected (many). I may have lost people over this. If you are reading this, I hope you’ll stick around for this next phase of my journey.

In the coming days, I’ll get the meat of what I’ll be on about in the coming year. a version better than what I am ready to adequately express.  This is all under development, but the very writing and sharing (activity) are part  of the ideals of authenticity, accountability, and connection that I want to cultivate, with a goal of 12 such posts (minimum) throughout the year.

~Izzi