I’m infamous in my avoidance of resolutions.
What are they? Vague promises that you might do something in way that is either unmeasurable or ridiculously unattainable.
Goals are different than resolutions. Resolutions are about resolve. Goals are about getting stuff done. Or trying to, anyway. It’s not such a bad thing to have a few goals you aren’t able to achieve.
So, maybe a better a word for them is aspirations. While I’m infamous for my avoidance of resolutions, I am quite adamant about this other thing. When I worked in the corporate world, I patterned my goals off of our company’s Annual Incentive Plan – you know, the thing that determined if we got a bonus and how big it would be. My goals worked like that. They were many infinite line items that added up to one hundred potential percentage points. All things I ought to do, and perhaps ought to do very well. I might only reach 60%, but that would still be a high-achieving year.
I didn’t really have those in 2013.
Maybe it was because I shattered so many of my old standards in 2012, like playing more shows, learning more songs, and writing with purpose here on CK. As a result, despite 2013 being pretty awesome by most accounts – new job, healthy baby, booked shows whenever I wanted to play them – it felt like kind of a flop. Lots of stuff got done, but nothing I was planning on doing.
Yesterday morning I began to write up that complex, nesting doll version of my goals. As I drafted and redrafted, I realized that they just don’t apply to where I am in life right now. Maybe it’s adulthood, or fatherhood, or start-up-hood. Whatever it is, I no longer have the need to achieve in forty distinct categories.
Instead, I present you with my 2014 Activity Flow Chart:
Are you awake?
If yes, are you at work?
If no, are you with the baby?
If no, have you written a blog post?
If yes, have you exercised in some way?
If yes, have you rehearsed music?
Really, you did all of those things? Great! Consider tidying your physical or digital life or finish up a little project.