78 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
78 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
<html lang='en'>
|
||
<head>
|
||
<title>gome — goals</title>
|
||
<meta charset='utf-8'/>
|
||
<meta name='theme-color' content='#efe5d7'>
|
||
<meta name='viewport' content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, shrink-to-fit=no'/>
|
||
<link rel='icon' type='image/x-icon' href='../favicon.ico'>
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='../css/fonts.css'/>
|
||
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='../css/style.css'/>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
<header id='header'>
|
||
<nav>
|
||
<a href='..'>back to gomepage</a>—<a href='.'>journal</a>
|
||
</nav>
|
||
</header>
|
||
<main>
|
||
<article>
|
||
<h1 id='title'>My goals for the year</h1>
|
||
<time datetime='Tue, 17 Jan 2023 23:00:00 CST'>17 Jan. 2023, 11:00 PM</time>
|
||
<p>
|
||
On the first of January, I set some goals for the new year.
|
||
I didn’t want to talk about them right away because I wasn’t sure they’d stick.
|
||
I’d feel kind of silly boldly declaring my strong intentions just to have them fail to last a week.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
As someone who has struggled many times in the past to develop the habits I wanted,
|
||
I find myself hesitant to commit to new habits, out of fear of disappointing myself yet again.
|
||
Logically, though, I know it’s just a form of self-defeating perfectionism, and what I really need to do is keep trying until something sticks.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
Thankfully, as I get older, I seem to be slowly but steadily improving my dependability.
|
||
For example, when I went back to school to complete my computer science degree, I found it easier to get my homework done than before.
|
||
I still procrastinated sometimes (and I still do), but in general the experience made me feel like change was possible.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
The other thing that inspired me to set some goals for the year was my ongoing success with this writing challenge.
|
||
It hasn’t been easy to get a post out every weekday, but I feel proud of what I’ve managed to do so far.
|
||
Looking back on all the writing I’ve managed to do so far is super cool and keeps me motivated to stay with it.
|
||
Honestly, prior to starting the challenge, I didn’t think I’d be capable of such a commitment, but I’ve proven myself wrong again and again for 33 days and counting.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
With all this in mind, I sat down on January 1<sup>st</sup> to give myself some goals.
|
||
And I mean “give” in more than one way. I consider each of these goals to be a gift to myself.
|
||
I won’t list all the goals or the specifics of each goal, but here are the broad categories of what I’m doing:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>idly using my phone less</li>
|
||
<li>getting proactive about dental health</li>
|
||
<li>regular quiet time, where I mainly do nothing</li>
|
||
<li>working out regularly</li>
|
||
<li>regular journaling and recording of my daily activities</li>
|
||
<li>various monthly and year-long goals, including reading a book monthly, learning 500 German vocab words, and <a href='./naturalist.html'>identifying 50 trees</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<img src='img/goal_booklets.webp' width='500' height='342' />
|
||
<p>
|
||
One important element of my new attempt at building habits is tracking them.
|
||
Every week, I make a <a href='https://bookzoompa.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/how-to-make-an-origami-pamphlet/'>little booklet</a> with my goals printed on it,
|
||
and I check them off as I complete them.
|
||
Having something tangible sitting on my desk helps return my focus to my goals on days I would be likely to forget them.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
So far, the goals have actually been going really well.
|
||
Most of my daily goals I’ve stuck with entirely.
|
||
The ones I tend to struggle with are the quiet time and the journaling.
|
||
They take the largest chunk of time out of my day, so I end up avoiding them.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
I’m not sure I’ll hit all my monthly goals in January, since they’re a little harder to prioritize than the more immediate daily goals.
|
||
And I have no idea if I’ll hit my year-long goals.
|
||
But as with the writing challenge, I’m already doing better than I thought I might.
|
||
Every day I get better at commiting to habits than I was before, and the value I’ve already gotten out of them is worth celebrating.
|
||
</p><p>
|
||
Did you set any goals for 2023?
|
||
What were they, and how are they going?
|
||
Have you noticed yourself improving in dependability with age?
|
||
Let me know your thoughts at my Ctrl-C email: <code>gome<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>@<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>ctrl-c.club</code>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</article>
|
||
</main>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|