It's time to challenge myself by setting some goals!
The idea for this post came from another one earlier this week, I forgot who it came from though. As I love to challenge myself, I think this is just what I need to do right now, one month into 2021. Last year, I ended the last month with a goal to finish the children's book I'm writing. I had no idea in November when setting this goal for myself, that the month of December would be filled with creativity and inspiration to craft Christmas things with my daughter. So when this happened, automatically our home turned into a crafting workplace, and both my daughter and I loved spending so much time together and crafting. I could see she enjoyed it even more than I did. This was 100% quality time with my daughter, and I didn't want to end it by being all caught up writing the story.
No regrets or hard feelings towards myself
I can be pretty hard on myself when I don't meet a deadline for something set by myself, because in all other cases, I always meet deadlines. I know that sometimes I just over ask myself to deliver not taking into account that sometimes life throws things your way that you can't ignore. So be it, that's life. I don't look back with any regrets because the crafting series was a success and we had so much fun together. I tried to force myself to write for the book several nights, but I was blocked and in a totally different mindset. It did make me realize that I should probably try to set goals over a longer period when it comes to something that's really important to me, like this book.
Oh well, better luck this year!
I can just pick up where I left off last time and make it happen this year. As you can see, I already gave away what one of my goals is for this year, so let's make a list and get to the rest (in no particular order)
Finish the final draft of my children's book. Once I'm done with the final draft, the illustrator I'm working with can continue his part and I feel that once we're at that stage, things will be done quickly and I'm super excited for that moment because one's published, I know more will follow! I'm not setting the deadline in a certain month because I thrive best when going with the flow.
Make sure we are happy in our own family bubble
This one needs some clarification, as it may sound a bit weird although it's a very important one of my goals for this year. They are actually 2 goals in one, but one of them is already within reach that I'm combining them. For too long, we've been living in someone else's house/apartment always choosing the most convenient one that came on our path. Never actually feeling at home. The one we're living in now is one that feels the closest to home, but unfortunately, still comes with a lot of trouble from the neighbors and no garden, so when having to stay home, it's not ideal.
The pandemic has show even more than ever, we need a house with a garden to be able to stay in our own bubble within the family rather than in a building with 100s of others that are also causing a lot of irritations on a daily basis. This will be a place outside of the city and therefore we need a car as well. The last one is within reach, thankfully.
The last one I'm putting on the list is being healthier together as a family. We've made some great starts, but due to all kinds of circumstances (and sometimes excuses!) we haven't managed to keep things going as planned. I'm still very confident that the positive changes this coming year will make this easier to pull through. Why? Because a high level of stress isn't the best motivator to change nasty habits into something healthier. I personally am a very sensitive person and when my boyfriend is under high pressure and stress, I notice my stress levels go up instantly and even I'm having trouble to calm down, while it's only his emotions that I'm picking up. I want us to be more in sync with ourselves and focus on meditation and healthier diet plus exercise again. Together we can do it. Rome wasn't built in one day either, was it? :)
Let's talk about skills
The past decades, I've had quite a few skills that I'd love to develop, but sometimes my priorities change (temporarily) because of the current life situation. I don't mind, I know this, and accept it by just going with the flow. The time invested is never wasted time, as I will continue working on that once the time is right again. I wish I had learned this decades ago, but I have been struggling with this in my younger years. At least I manage to do so now, right? Better late than never they say. So here are 3 of the skills I wish to improve in 2021:
Those that read my posts, already so I made a start using Krita to create digital drawings/paintings. I know there's still so much to learn and I probably don't even master the basics yet, but I'm working on this every day. I'm challenging myself to learn as much as I can this year and also start looking into adding movement in the artworks. I hope by the end of this year, I have created some kick-ass collections with art and of course sold quite a few of them already!
Educate myself about how the markets in cryptocurrency work. Learn how to read the charts and understand the psychology behind it.
When becoming more serious investing and trading cryptocurrency, it's needed to learn how the markets work, rather than following advice from others or my gut feeling. This is high on my priority list for this year, reading / watching videos about this topic every day (even if a short amount of time) to keep myself sharp and hopefully understand things a bit better by the day. Get ready for the bulls :)
2020 was the year that I chose to do an online course I wanted to do for some years. When the first certificate was a fact, it felt like I needed to challenge myself more to keep learning. After the first, a few more followed and a few are lined up as well. I want to motivate myself to do this more often, even after I've finished the currently lined up courses. It's good to keep the mind sharp and stay on top of things. So this is the last thing I chose for my list. It could also have been added to the goals list, but in the end I'm trying to learn new things so I think it fits better in this category.
Conclusion
I feel all these things will be accomplished and I can look back at the year with a smile and be proud of what I've done. The year started with a bang, and gave so much confidence and inspiration to continue the path we're on and now the first month of the year is over, I can say that buying a car is very within reach. This year will only get better, and I can't wait to see where we're at in 3 months from now.
Have you set yourself some goals or skills you want to improve this year? Maybe you could share them as well. Or just leave a comment below! :)
Great post. I love how you mentioned having no regrets. I hope you finish your book! I just published a small chapbook of poetry for the first time and felt really fired up when I accomplished that. 😁
Thank you :)
I hope so too, and yeah, I have to be realistic and know that I should go with the flow as otherwise I will probably be frustrated a lot more, which I used to be. That's not helping me either, so why bother. There's always tomorrow. And the deadlines I set, I decide myself, so I just have to think "ok, that failed, maybe it was not realistic, no problem, just try again!"
Gonna press the follow button as you made me curious about your poetry book, too tired now (sorry :) )
I set myself a few goals too, like for example to eat as healthy as possible, to be fit, learn a new language, and specially learn how to code. I have to write them down so I dont forget and lose the focus. Very cool post, you made me think a lot.
Oh yeah, totally forgot about the language thing, thanks for the reminder :)
I'm the same .. if not written down, it will probably fail .. So I get that. Will you create a post of your own? I'd love to read your goals for 2021 :)
Good idea my friend, I probably will because I have so many, I would come back every now and then to check up how Im doing every month. It would be fun so I dont lose focus in the way. ;) thanks
Yeah, personally I love this kind of posts, even if you can't succeed in all things (which defo happens to me lol) I notice it still helps me to stay focused and also be aware of the fact that I could have pushed myself a bit harder sometimes, or other times that life got in the way, and oh well, there's always tomorrow.
So I'd recommend you to write one :)
My goal is to enjoy the present moment.