New Year, New Goals, Same Me
I usually go into the new year with a single-spaced page long list of resolutions. A list filled with pure hopes, vivid dreams, and an abundance of unrealistic expectations. While I don’t mind holding myself to a high standard, setting unrealistic goals for myself has consistently led me to being let down. Even my daily and weekly to-do lists are designed for someone who has more than 24 hours in a day. But, if I’m honest, elaborate resolutions and to-do lists are very on brand for me.
This decade, I want to do things differently. To start it off in the right direction, I’m limiting my list to no more than five goals to accomplish in 2020. The last few years of lists have included a lot of the same resolutions. My lists become so jam packed in the planning stage that by the end of the year, half of the goals fall by the wayside. Something needs to change.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.
I’d rather end 2020 having accomplished a few big goals that set me up for the following year, rather than maybe make it through twenty smaller goals by the skin of my teeth just to say I maybe accomplished twenty goals. For 2020, five is the magic number.
And in this list of five I won’t be finding loopholes to sneak in more goals. They won’t each be a paragraph long. I’m a whiz with using commas and love a good run on sentence. But I really want to curate a list I have a chance of completing and one that creates habits I can take with me into life after 2020.
Wow, I have just talked a lot of good game. Truth is, I haven’t even made this list yet. As I’m writing this post, I’m trying to figure out what will make the cut for my 2020 Resolutions List. I want most of my resolutions to create habits for myself that will benefit me long-term. It’s hard enough to create one new habit for myself. I need a lot of time to fail, retry, fail again, come up with a new strategy and in the end find my groove. If I have too many new habits on the list to form, more than five, then I run the risk of not making any of them a true habit. They could easily become something I did for a whole month before I moved onto another. So, five resolutions maximum. I CAN DO THIS!!! By the end of this post I will reveal the lucky number five I am bringing into 2020 with me.
Before that, here are three ways I’m going to set myself up for success in the next decade of my art career:
ONE: SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of “New Year, New Me.” I mean, it’s a super catchy hashtag. And in moments of resetting things, like the first of a new year, it can sound like the answer to all my problems. But this tagline can also be problematic. By saying “New Year, New Me” I’m also saying that there was, or still is, something inherently wrong with me. That’s starting off the year thinking I’m not good enough. If I want to take it in a non-literal/less problematic way, it’s still possible for me to fall into the trap of thinking this new attitude and way of life will take effect immediately. Realistically, becoming a new and improved version of myself will take a lot of time and effort. This means I need to set my expectations accordingly. Not necessarily lower them, but line them up in a way to be accomplished using and building on the skills I already have; and considering the responsibilities I have outside of these new goals.
TWO: BREAK DOWN GOALS INTO SMALLER (SPECIFIC) TASKS
I will always shoot for the stars. But aiming for the stars doesn’t mean I have to reach the stars by a specific date. It means I need to be actively working toward the goals I’ve set, one big or little small step at a time, for however long it takes. For example, one of my goals could be to make $1000 in art sales. No one is going to just give me $1000 and I can’t bank on making something I can price at $1000 that will sell at that price. But I can sit down to make a list of things I make that could turn a profit. Spend a few weekends making the products. Research online how to set up an Esty or a place I can vend, in person, near me. Then try my hand at finding an audience to sell to. These individual smaller steps could help me get to the bigger goal of making $1000 in the next year.
THREE: REALIZE I AM NOT A FAILURE WHEN I DON’T COMPLETE EVERY GOAL
This is where I have the most trouble. I’m very hard on myself naturally. I want to get things done and I want to get them done when I said I would. Even when I know I have made my list unrealistically ambitious; I still kick myself when I get to the end of the year and realize I haven’t accomplished a lot of the goals I had set. I want to get to a place of focusing on what I was able to accomplish rather than what I couldn’t. I want to realize that even if I only complete a tiny step within a goal, that’s more than I had done when I set the goal. That, itself, is an accomplishment to be proud of.
And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
KADAZIA’S 2020 RESOLUTIONS
Prioritize my health.
Go to church more often.
Call Grandma every Sunday.
Make art every day.
Open an online shop.
Wow. Now that is one concise list. I want to add more but I won’t.
Later this month I will write a post where I break down these goals into smaller tasks I think will help me reach them, as I suggested for myself above. I will also do a year in review of my 2019 vision board where I’ll talk about my hits and misses of last year. These TWO mid-month blog posts will only be available on my Patreon. You can gain access to these posts by subscribing to one of my lovely Patreon Subscription Tiers that start off as low as $1 a month. Fun tip, the higher the tier subscription, the more exclusive goodies you can receive. To check out the benefits of each tier, and possibly pledge, click on the link below:
www.patreon.com/kadaziasparkles
Regardless, I’ll be visiting your inbox the first week of February to tell you how THE BIG 5 are shakin’ out. Until then, let me know what some of your goals are for this next year! I love perusin’ a good list!
Thanks for reading Lovelies,
Kadazia Allen-Perry
