New month’s resolutions
So it’s now the start of February. All those grand plans I had a month ago, where are they now? Looking back at my list, I do look like something of a self-help cliché. Lose weight, eat better, drink less, worry less, write more. One month on, I’ve actually made some progress, but Veganuary fell victim to a bacon sandwich, Dry January fell victim to finding a nice bottle of burgundy in the back of the cupboard, and “run every day” was never going to survive an unexpected dump of snow. The one area I hadn’t made any progress with was “write more”. Despite managing to block out a serious amount of time, I had just found more creative ways to procrastinate. That new Jack Reacher, the latest Ian Rankin, reading is like research right? Teaching myself SQL? I had been meaning to do that for ages, and managed to find an online course, and it felt worthy, I can’t feel guilty about that…
So January ends, and what to do now? Write off 2021 as another failed year, and wait for 2022. Scale back my ambitions. Forget about everything. Wait for lockdown to end. Luckily for me, an email from a past procrastination binge dropped into my inbox. Action Required! A few simple steps to make progress on one of my goals. I would definitely bookmark that and follow up later in the week. But then, I had a flash of inspiration. It may not be a new year, but it is a new month. Perhaps I could set some new month’s resolutions. The advantages were obvious. It would give me 12 bites at the cherry, rather than just one. I could make my goals smaller, but more achievable, and that warm fuzzy feeling of ticking something off seemed to be within my grasp.
So thank you to Tim Denning. I know this is just the start. But not only has it got me over the line, it has also given me a great idea, that I know will be helpful for me. I feel more energized about my other goals too. So even if I don’t manage to write anything else between now and the end of February, I will get another chance to set some goals then, for the brand new month of March. And who knows, this could be the start of something I have been putting off for over forty years. I’ve never been more excited about the future…
