It’s a new year, and I have a nice set of ambitions all stacked up and organized for the next 12 months. After writing the same lengthy list of goals every January for a few years, I have altered my resolutioning technique. Now I keep that same list of things I want to be doing daily stored away as a reminder (read scriptures, pray, journal, exercise, clean, cook new food, read new books, etc. etc. ETC.). Those are my how-I-want-to-always-live/long term lifetime goals. These days, in order to avoid getting bogged down in goal-setting, I simply choose 4 or 5 things that I want to accomplish in the new year. I find that those things actually get done when I limit myself to a few.
Last year my friend posted an interesting video. Here’s the gist of it: when we tell other people about their goals, we are less likely to achieve those goals. When we tell people our goals, their comments [like, “good for you!”] give us a feeling similar to the release/satisfaction we get when we accomplish our goals. So we feel less motivated to work on achieving our goals because we’ve already experienced the catharsis without the work.
I like keeping my personal goals tucked away in my mind so I can track my own progress all on my own, with no external stress or invasions. 3 of my 5 goals for this year are that kind of secret goal. I’ll share the other 2 though, because I finished one already!
Goal A: Make photo books of the past 6 years. I used to make scrapbooks by hand. It was a fun, crafty release for me. Well, small children have dampened that ambition, so we only have digital versions of our pictures. In the name of family history, I resolved to slap some photos into books and print them. Well, I noticed that Shutterfly.com was having a 50% off photo books sale through January 9th. Their books are some of the best quality, so I decided to GO for it. And today I finished a lovely 77 page book that includes pictures from the first 3 years of the White Things. They had this sweet thing that lets you embed the book on a blog, so here it is if you’re interested.
Click here to view this photo book larger
Technically I still have 3 more years to put into photo books, but time and cost are causing me to wait till another sale. But the deadline of this sale was the perfect inspiration for me to get ON it and GO! Yay for meeting a goal 1 week into the new year!
Goal B: Play my violin 4 days each week. I love playing my violin, but boy am I rusty. I’ve played since I was 11, but there have been LONG breaks in there due to time, priorities, and privacy. Now that we’re finally NOT sharing walls with people, I can play to my heart’s content without any nagging worries that people can HEAR me. I’m an absurd type of musician: I prefer to play in private. I don’t mind if Jay and Rose listen. I’m getting better about playing when Jeff is in the house, but he sure can’t be in the same room!
There was one barrier to this goal and I fixed it in such a sneaky way. The rubber on my shoulder rest was worn through and the metal underneath was threatening to scratch my shiny violin.
I wasn’t in the mood to buy a whole new shoulder rest just for the rubber, sooo I remembered from waaaay back in my youth orchestra days when my stand partner said she fixed her shoulder rest with rubber tubing from the hardware store. So I got some from Lowes, and sha-pow, $1 later I was back in business.
As good as new!
Whew! I’m feeling wordy. Hurrah for lists! and for goals! and lists of goals! And private squeaking…I mean fiddling!
3 comments:
I feel the same way about my goals too! And I had no idea you played the violin! A hidden talent ready to come to the surface again :)
Good job, I love your book! And by the way- have I told you how yummy your apricot jam is? We love it! Thanks again!
You play the violin? I feel like I knew that already, and yet didn't. I applaud you for practicing--I haven't touched my cello in months, and I feel a lot of guilt about it. Tommy actually asks me to play, but I never feel quite comfortable trying to sit and play with the little ones running around. I think I'm paranoid, though, because they all love it.
I look forward to seeing what other goals you accomplish this year :-)
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