Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions

GDR Questions for 2019

This year’s plan will take longer, and uses a variety of techniques for inner work. In some ways, it’s a departure from the way we’ve worked the past few years; in other ways, it builds on it.

First of all, take some time and assess 2018. What worked for you? What didn’t? What did you have to change? What did you let go of because it was no longer working? And, an important element — what were the unexpected joys?

Last year (and all the years prior) have set the foundation for the future. Now, you get to choose what that future entails.

Envision your ideal. What is your ideal creative situation, living situation, partnership situation, work situation? Write about each of these, be it a few sentences or a few pages.

Look at where you are and your ideal. Are they far apart? Are they close, but need a few tweaks?

If it helps in the visualization, draw it. You don’t have to be an artist. Take either a large piece of paper, or two separate papers or boards. Create one collage of what your life is now and one of what you’d like your life to be. Set them side-by-side.

What do you notice about each?

Pick an area of your life (example: creative work). Take a fresh sheet of paper.

At the top, write where you are (example: working in a bank during the day, writing at night and on weekends).

At the bottom, write where you want to be (example: writing full time).

Now, create manageable steps to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Once you’ve done that, look at those steps, and see which ones are realistic accomplishments to achieve in the course of the coming year.

Do this for each area of your life that you wish to change. Feel free to post photos of the boards at the beginning of 2019, along with the lists.

Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do everything in a single year. But pick a handful of steps in each area of your life and commit to them.

Now, think about things you’ve always wanted to do, but never done before. Pick three of them, and list them. They are your LEAPS. They can overlap any of the categories: Goals, Dreams, or Resolutions. They don’t have to be in the same category. Now, list three steps to accomplish each of them.

From these various lists, pick:

Three Goals and three manageable steps to accomplish each of them;

Three Dreams and three manageable steps to work on them;

Three Resolutions and three manageable steps on accomplish them.

List Three Leaps and three manageable steps to achieve them.

This year, find a new way of recording your accomplishments. Not just in list format, but in photographs, drawings, music, even dance. We will share more visuals and aurals this coming year.

We will start posting them on January 2nd, on the regular GDR blog page (not here).

And then work on our personal strategic plan to post in February, that incorporates the above along with other things we want to change.