So I read last year’s New Years blog where I assessed my goals from 2010 and made goals for 2011. In just a moment, I’ll do the same thing for 2011 and 2012. But first I’m going to pontificate. Yay.
It feels kind of ironic to call these New Year’s resolutions. I know it’s because the year is new (duh), but my goals feel rehashed year after year. There’s nothing new about the whole process of setting goals, thinking about them for a couple of weeks, forgetting them until December 31st, and then setting the very same goals again.
I don’t mean to be cynical. There’s nothing wrong with a lot of my goals. I quite like them, in fact. That’s why I keep trying to do them every year. But for some reason I feel like emphasizing the fact that these goals are a work in progress over many years. So let’s look at the things I hoped to check off my list during 2011.
- Blog more (I wrote 50 blog posts in 2010).
- Try different artistic mediums (I have tried lead pencil, acrylics, oil pastels, ceramics, and glass etching).
- Make art that isn’t Achaean.
- Read more (Just going to have to guess on this, not sure how many books I read this year).
- Travel more (I went to Vegas in 2010).
- Weigh less (I know how much I weigh…we’ll leave it at that).
- Write more fiction (I’ve got 4 chapters of one idea so far).
I’ve tried to make my goals measurable, so I can see if I “finished” any of them. But I don’t feel like that does me any good, really. What I really care about is if I’m a better person. That’s what all these goals are for. They are just finite manifestations of what I consider success in the moment I’m writing them. The funny thing is, my concept of what a successful life is can and will change over the course of an entire year.
For example, I set a goal to try more artistic mediums. I understand the value in that goal and what I considered a good artist to be back then. And I still would like to try some new mediums. But the fact is, I’ve become more confidant in art over the past year. I paint more. I don’t paint a ton, but I paint more often. I’m slightly less afraid of the canvas. I’ve done most of this in acrylics with a little bit in watercolor. Those two are kind of my staples for now. So the fact that I didn’t technically “accomplish” this goal just feels silly to me, because I am a better artist than I was before.
Just for the sake of my own curiosity, and possibly yours, here’s how I did on each of my 2011 goals. But my 2012 goals are going to be slightly different.
- This blog post is number 58. Take that 2010!
- I haven’t tried any new artistic mediums.
- I’ve made plenty of art that isn’t Achaean.
- Given the number of book reviews I’ve written here (and that’s not all the books I read either..I got lazy with blogging back in the summer), I’d venture a guess that yes, I read more in 2011 than I did in 2010.
- I did not travel anywhere this year, except the Salt Flats once. And I’ve already been there.
- I have, in fact, lost 22 pounds. That’s probably my most impressive accomplishment in 2011 (for me anyway).
- I haven’t written any fiction whatsoever for a whole year.
Okay, so…4/7. 57%. So what is that?
Shut up Yahoo! answers. What do you know? Let’s ask Wikipedia.
Gasp. Stupid official US grading scale. I know there has to be somewhere that thinks I passed…
Wooot! Go Canada! Il sait porter la croix!
Okay, enough nonsense. Here’s what I want to do for 2012. Basically, I want to be a better person. Here is how I currently define that. I will feel successful if I:
- have an increased feeling of independence and personal responsibility.
- continue to be health conscious.
- continue to grow as an artist.
- continue to grow spiritually.
- am happy.
The only one of these that I’ll need to compare how I feel right now to how I feel at the end of the year is the first one. Right now, I live in my parents’ basement. I don’t manage my money very well and continue to live paycheck to paycheck. I do have a great job that I feel very confident in and I have a car that’s paid off and works. I have a nice personal space here in the basement. And I feel like I’m a more honest person than I have been in the past. Hopefully that’s enough for me to gauge whether or not I feel more responsible and independent at the end of 2012.
Anyway, those are my goals. They aren’t anything new. And I plan to keep working on them long after 2012. That is, if the world is still here after December 21st.
