New New Years

I'm writing this on January 1st, 2024. Chances are you are reading this in February or March, so let's venture back using our mind-time machines and pretend it's New Year's Eve, 2023. Humor me.

I have struggled with a lot of unhealthy behavior to cope with all the crap I had going on in my life over the last several years. (I'll let your mind fill in the blanks here, but wherever your mind takes you, you're probably pretty close to right.) This past New Year's Eve though, I wanted to do something different, something positive, something not get stupid drunk and being hung over the next day. Something to acknowledge all the big changes, good and bad, of 2023, leave them there, and usher in a better life and habits in 2024.

Your guess is as good as mine is what that looks like. I thought about it for a week, as my coworkers and friends were planning nights of wild debauchery or nerdy game marathons. A few things I knew for sure I wanted to happen, or actually not to happen, were, 1. I didn't want to drink, 2. I didn't want to be alone, and 3. I didn't want to stay up all night. Didn't leave me many options, did it?

As I pondered, I started prepping my day planner for 2024. Yes, I'm one of those people that still uses paper to keep track of her life. There's something therapeutic about physically writing things down. It connects me differently to my life than adding everything to my blinking Google calendar. I can't really explain it, but I'll muse on it. Might be food for a future article. Who knows!

I had bought a new planner back in October. It's from Target, has a daily "Top 3" to help me prioritize my daily tasks, a nice section for all my various lists, and a pretty floral cover. It also has, and I missed this part when I bought it, a section in the beginning to set goals. UGH.

The thought of hosting a goal setting session on New Year's Eve started haunting me. It wouldn't go away. It popped up while I crunched numbers at work, when I watched an episode of Wednesday while riding an elliptical at the gym, and while trying so fall asleep at night. Did I say UGH yet?

And who would want to come to a goal-setting party? On NYE. Forking seriously, Universe! What the heck?

But I couldn't ignore it. So I set out an invite to a pile of people that was entirely uninviting. It said thing like, "I do not intend this to be your entire NYE," "no booze, no wild party", and "I will kick you out well before midnight." Everyone will jump at the chance to go to a party like that, right? Right…

Exactly five people showed up. And we had a great time, eating popcorn, listening to Ted Lasso in the background, coloring mandalas, putting Lego sets together, drinking green tea, and chatting about our goals, hopes, aspirations, and pitfalls and how to avoid them. It was exactly the night I needed, and I am glad I have friends that see the value in conversations like that. We can encourage each other, keep each other accountable, cry with each other when there are failures, and rejoice in victories.

Setting goals is intimidating. A lot of people don't set them because they are afraid to fail. Many people don't set them because then they will have to do something about it, and that's a lot of work and responsibility. And a handful of people think they're just dumb. I get it. Goal setting is not for the faint of heart!

One goal that I've set for myself is to be creative every day, meaning write, play my guitar, do some sort of hippie project or recipe, etc., every day. (If you want to know how my homemade pine needle disinfectant turned out, shoot me a PM.) Am I going to accomplish that 100% of the time? Absolutely not. AND THAT'S OK. That's the boat I think most people miss around setting goals. It is OK to fail at your goals. By making it a daily goal though, I am forcing myself to think about it regularly. Will I have 365 new creative items under my belt on December, 31st, 2024? Nope. But I might have 157, and that's 157 more than I had if I hadn't set the goal in the first place.

So start with one simple goal and see how it goes. Maybe it's just something as simple as "I will tell my annoying coworker 'Good Morning', even though I'd much rather punch her face in," or "I will try a new recipe once a week," or maybe even, "I will park in the furthest spot from the store so I have to walk a little more even though I just drove by the BEST spot, damnit!" Once you accomplish a little goal, move on to something a little bigger. Step up your goal game as works for you. You never know where you might end up! Most importantly, do not beat yourself up when you screw up, because you will screw up. To quote one of our great modern thinkers, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming."

You can come by and tell me all about it on NYE 2024. Just make sure you stop by before 9:30.

Photo Credit:

https://unsplash.com/photos/happy-new-year-clipart-lQ3go6MNPzo?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash