I’m not a fan of resolutions as a singularity. Truth be told, I usually end up doing another course correction come spring. And then again when autumn arrives. Sometimes it seems goals take a couple revs of the engine. Like G.K. Chesterton said: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
For the past few years, I’ve sat down with this free writing activity after the holidays. The more times I do the You Are Here prompts, the more the benefits grow. For me, it’s tempting to rush into new plans, rather than to sit and ponder the year just lived. Self-examination can induce squirming. Reality is uncomfortable. Case in point, I struggle to be the woman who consistently wakes at 5:00 to do ALL THE THINGS, despite desperately wanting to be this sort of person. But I can be the woman who gets up a bit earlier to manage a handful of things. I’m learning to compromise with the person I am and the person I want to be.
Creatively, here’s a handful of things I’m attempting in 2026:
I’ve turned my phone into a brick between 8:00 pm and 7:00 am, restricting everything but emergency calls and texts. Super basic? Yup. But this one has freed up a lot of head space.
Any free time I have turns me into a squirrel, hot in pursuit of the next shiny thing. “I can draw (fill in the blank)! I can design (insert item)!” But then no one thing is done well. To that end, I drafted a list of personal projects that need finishing (or starting). Basically, I just need to put on blinders.
I’m setting the bar low (read: I do not have 50,000 resolutions). By the end of 2026, I want my middle grade project in stable enough shape to submit. My website needs an overhaul. I want to teach one class on block printing. Beyond this? There’s a handful of things I’d like to do, but they aren’t priorities. If I get to them, I get to them. But those three things mentioned are non-negotiable. And because it’s a short list, it feels possible.
My key takeaway from 2025? Keep swimming. This is my first ever cannonball dive from last summer, flying off the diving board. I remember breaking through the water, plummeting down, thinking, “You can only go up from here.” And that’s the vibe I want to bring into the new year. Life includes mishaps. And mystery.
Might as well dive in and find the way up.
A few other January things:
The new season of Astrid is splendid!
I stayed up far too late last night reading Plain Jane and the Mermaid. And yes, the irony of writing above about being unable to wake at 5:00 is not lost on me…
This article about the value of boredom is worth a read.
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