2016 was a tough year for me. I felt behind and overloaded from the very start. The extra misogyny in the air due to the election was really difficult for me to handle even when we all thought Hillary Clinton would win. And it was in the air all year long, it really was. When she lost, I found I couldn't spare the time to process my unresolved emotions around some of the memories the campaign stirred up because I needed to focus on responding to the threat Trump poses. Baratunde Thurston has described Trump as a denial of service attack on our democracy, and that is the most apt description I've read. Figuring out how to do my part to resist that while also doing the work I need to do to keep our bills paid took some time and effort.
So I spent all of 2016 feeling like I was reacting to circumstances, not following my own priorities. I felt like I didn't accomplish many of my goals. But when I pulled out my list and did a final accounting, I found I'd done better than my gut feeling told me I did. That was actually a bit of a morale boost, and speaks to the power of writing down your goals and holding yourself accountable for them. It helps keep you from blowing them off when things get tough, and perhaps more importantly, it can show you that you made progress even when it feels like you're stalled.
Let's look at how I did:
- Revive my yoga practice. FAIL. I did some yoga this year, and solved the space problem so that I could do it more regularly (basically, we let the kids trash the open area between our sofa and dining table, which helps them remember to keep the area between the sofa and TV clear.) But I didn't do yoga anywhere consistently enough to call it a practice.
- Crochet something useful. SUCCEED! I am calling the teddy bear sleeping bag useful. I'm working on a purse for me now, but I chose difficult yarn and it is slow going.
- Finish the Ancillary series. SUCCEED! And I enjoyed the series to the end.
- Learn how to make another type of New Zealand meat pie. FAIL. I hardly even made the steak and cheese pies I already have down. They take a lot of energy.
- Play my violin and viola at least once each. FAIL. Sigh.
- Develop an exercise routine. SUCCEED! I was trying to get there from the start, but the routine really solidified when I came back from vacation and saw the pictures of me in a swimsuit and swore to live the healthiest life I will enjoy. The Friday afternoon rollerblade is particularly great, but I'm managing a solid three days of exercise per week. I get up early on Mondays and go for a short run. Mondays are the only day of the week I can consistently make myself get up early, but instead of feeling bad that I can't do it other days, I'm just taking advantage of my Monday motivation. I either kickbox or go for a slightly longer run on Wednesday afternoons, and then there is my Friday rollerblade. I also go for a walk after lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, but this is a leisurely walk so I consider it a bonus, not part of my "real" exercise routine.
- Organize my closet. SUCCEED! Of course, it is getting messy again. But for awhile it was beautiful.
- Finish setting up the office. SUCCEED! The blinds are up, the bookshelves are in. It is awesome.
- Get new curtains for the living room/dining room. SUCCEED! And they make me very happy.
- Invent a signature cocktail. FAIL. This is disappointing to me. It would have been a fun goal to work on!
- Organize the tea cupboard. FAIL. I don't have any ideas for how to fix that other than to reorganize all the kitchen cupboards and that is too much to contemplate.
- Do one Spanish-learning activity every day. SUCCEED! DuoLingo for the win.
That's a 7/12 success rate, which isn't bad. Also, we went kayaking and I'm wearing dresses more often now, so some of the 2015 goals got done in 2016.
Here are my goals for this year:
- Keep up my exercise routine. I don't usually do "continue doing X" sort of goals, but this one still feels a little shaky and it really matters, so it is not only on the list but the first thing I committed to myself to do.
- Read a book on my Kindle instead of random things on my phone for at least one bedtime/week. I enjoy my social media time, but I also enjoy reading books.
- Get making music back into my life. I keep trying, I keep failing. Maybe this is my year.
- Volunteer - find a place to volunteer at regularly and do it. I've started working on this one. I'm researching potential volunteer options. I'm currently leaning towards volunteering with the local child abuse prevention charity that organizes the Adopt-a-Family event we participate in at Christmas time. I want to make a decision and get myself volunteering by February.
- Frame the postcards for our office. We brought some postcards that are reproductions of artwork showing the region around St. Jean de Luz that we visited during our 2015 trip to France. The interior decorator who helped with our remodel used those postcards to recommend colors for our office. So now we need to get them framed and hung.
- Paint the baseboards in the hall. This is a lingering item from our remodel, which finished in late 2015. I refuse to let them remain unpainted another year.
- Buy a new mattress. We need one, and perhaps putting this on the list will get it done, like the curtains last year.
- Invent a signature cocktail. I'm trying again!
- Establish a yoga/meditation practice. I'm trying this one again, too, because the times in my life during which I've had a regular practice are the times when I have responded to stress the best, and I predict a lot of stress about the political situation in 2017.
I decided to leave it at nine goals this year. I want to focus more on my work goals, and I also expect to spend more time than usual on political things. So a shorter goals list feels right. I'll also be continuing with the crocheting and the efforts to learn some Spanish, so I think I won't be bored.
I'll be writing about my work goals over at my newsletter this Friday. I've given myself a bit of a head start on one of the goals. I want to increase the reach of my Tungsten Hippo project, and late last year I started a monthly giveaway to help with that. This month's giveaway post went up today. I'm giving away two copies of Vanessa Fogg's wonderful novelette, The Lilies of Dawn. Go enter the giveaway! Tell your friends!
And tell me about your goals for the year in the comments if you want, or give me ideas for how to achieve my goals, or write about something random. Whatever.
I feel out of step with most of the blogs I read. All the PF blogs are going "buy nothing!" and "do less"! But I'm spending more on things I normally wouldn't (Washington Post and Teen Vogue were my most recent purchases) and I'm spending a heck of a lot more time making phone calls and trying to get politically active locally. And to encourage others who are still like how I was a few months ago-- having the right intentions but not getting particularly involved-- to make their voices heard as well, because we need everybody. (And again, thank you for your activism and figuring stuff out! Most of my mid-week political action comes from your twitter feed.)
ReplyDelete[DH is meeting with the local dems leader on Wednesday (she finally got back to us) and we'll see where that takes us. She mentioned in her email that they may need someone to do computer stuff and although I don't think they're going to go full social media they sure could use a monthly list-serve to, for example, tell people who have signed up on their website when their monthly meetings are. As an example.]
So I dunno. I'm trying out going on a walk at lunch instead of after work to see if that actually happens. Definitely doing political action at least once a week (though it's been more like 4x/week these days, but these are important days). But that's about it. I do need to work more and I'm kind of hoping to have a draft of a specific paper by March, but I'm not doing actions that would lead that to happen (instead procrastinating with another project), so we'll see what happens.
I highly highly highly recommend buying a new mattress. We finally did it last spring and it may have been my favorite part of 2016 that I forgot about until just now. I love our mattress so so much. We had tried to resuscitate an old one with memory foam toppers and then we bought a memory foam one from Azon that made us miserable for a year. Finally, we know we love staying at the Wynn in Vegas so we considered buying their mattress but a quick search showed us that we could order the Sealy version without the Wynn branding for about $500 less. If you have a hotel mattress you have tried and loved, I highly recommend just buying it (or the clone).
ReplyDeleteCongrats on solid progress.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of roomandboard.com mattresses because they only use foams and materials that do not off gas. They are a steal among natural mattress dealers. I have 3 of them.
We got our last (organic, wool and latex) mattress shipped from Green Cradle in Los Angeles.
DeleteOn the music, I joined a choir 7 or 8 years ago, and it fulfilled a musical need I didn't realise I had (ex piano player who kept saying I would play more and never did). Because it is a group, it takes commitment, so I go - weekly during school term time. Our choir isn't that serious (I practice outside sessions maybe three or four times a year), and has introduced me to a whole set of people I would never otherwise meet in my daily life.
ReplyDeleteI had wanting to join a choir for ages though (maybe why it works for me), because I love listening to vocal harmony. It is very trendy here at the moment, there seems to be a choir for every kind of person!
This year (after a fairly intense year at work last year) my goal is to spend more time networking in my industry and also mentoring (since I always enjoy both).
I also would like to start volunteering this year. I've been making an effort to learn more about the issues facing my local area (rather than global) and want to find ways to help. My first thought was to volunteer at the hospital where I began my rehab after my stroke. I have the forms to fill out, but need to figure out what days/times I can commit too.
ReplyDeleteHere are my goals for 2017
Our Tempur-Pedic isn't just comfortable -- it has changed our lives for the better. Not waking up with sore spots puts a whole different spin on the day. Yes, expensive... and worth every penny.
ReplyDeleteLove the teddy bear sleeping bag :)
ReplyDeleteI tried hard not to cop out with a "Just survive" set of goals but I couldn't do anything like the rest of the PF bloggers who are all full of challenges and Buy Nothing and THEMES for the year. I don't have the heart for that. I did choose specific meaningful things I want to achieve this year.
They're small in the grand scheme of things, and don't touch on the things I DO want to do (flesh out the ideas for those multi-lingual children's books, write up a business plan for striking out on my own in some way) because I'm in an energy sink period right now, thanks to the neighbor crap I've been dealing with but I'm happy with them for now, and I can always add more when I'm ready.
I'd push the mattress to the top of your list. We sneaked a new one in just before Christmas and it has been awesome (Sealy firm I think it is).
ReplyDeleteMy 2016 recap is on my Organising Queen blog at http://www.marciafrancois.com/blog/2017/01/09/a-recap-of-2016/