It’s minutes before midnight, January 24. Christmas Eve was a month ago. 2020 feels like months ago. And it’s good to be back on this virtual space of the Internet, after months away.
I’d love to dive into some 2020 lessons… but in reality, I can only share what I’ve learned about myself. Because:
How you feel about 2020 has much to do with where you’re standing.
I still have a full-time job. Granted, this hybrid of WFH and “working at work” creates a unique, day by day schedule. And because of the partially “in-person” nature of work, I might be next in line to get the vaccine, after the elderly. But that’s making a lot of assumptions. I’m very much #privileged to have a job.
And I won’t deny I have other privileges. The president I voted for was elected. I have a roof over my head. I have health insurance.
And, so, now more than ever, I want to write about what matters to me, and when discussing goals, I want to share my PROCESS more than the PRODUCTS/OUTCOMES of these habits.
I look at my 2020 goals and see the PRIVILEGE of even being able to make a few of them.
Granted, those goals came with good intention: I wanted my values to lead my direction. For example, I assigned the value of self-care to the goal of preparing meals full of veggies. And while self-care is important, it doesn’t always look like avocado-tomato-basil-quinoa… Sometimes, it looks like whatever’s in the fridge.
And to say I 1. have a fridge and 2. often have choices within that fridge is something I used to take for granted.
And that’s one of the biggest things I learned in 2020, honestly. That these “little things” that make my life easier are privileges. That the “things” I should care about are not even products at all.
I should care about stability. Whether it’s being mentally sharp or creating a life that’s frugal and resourceful. So in this new year, I am doing things a little differently.
In 2021, I will let habits direct my goals.
Values matter, certainly. I still respect CREATING, EXPLORING, LEARNING, MOVING, and SERVING as ways to live out my best life.
I still value the seemingly arbitrary things I said in the post about my 2020 vision. 2020’s top goal was to “publish articles on multiple channels”, but instead you’ll see more resourcefulness, such as “document goals in new ways” by blogging every Sunday and (spoiler alert?) logging via chart and quick copy on key pages of the website.
You’ll also see by using habits to set the goals, each pairing is more SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. I truly want to stack, track, organize, and optimize this year.
I’ll be using the resources I have, like this website, to set my 2021 direction. Because I can only control what I do, some values will be redefined: exploring in 2021 looks like new topics, themes, and mediums for creativity. Not going to new places, since that’s dependent on a virus somehow fading into the abyss because it’s a new year.
So, stay tuned for the next blog post, on 1/31. Or take a look at the site’s navigation and logo, I’ll be updating throughout the week.
Attention setting question… How can you be more resourceful in 2021?