What would the month of January be without that blog post about resolutions or goals? I thought about focusing this down to just the items that relate to art, projects, and career. But it’s really all related, isn’t it? Some of these items are part of my reason for doing art, related to what my sales fund, or how I get to the desk both mentally and physically.
My word of the year for 2024: Discipline
Mostly, this means actually finishing the projects I start (or have already started and stalled out or given up on) as well as holding myself to the standards and goals I’ve set forth. A big part of this means striving for integrity—if I say I’ll do something, I do it. This is following on the heels of some of my overarching themes from the previous years: momentum, consistency, persistent. I like having a yearly word. It’s kind of like throwing your own year-long themed party.
The Daily Givens
Journaling: 10 or more minutes
Yoga: 30 or more minutes
Meditation: 10 or more minutes
Sketching: 10 or more minutes
Reading: 60 or more minutes
This year I want to work on my “Daily Givens.” These are things I want to just assume that, at some point during each day, I will do them. I used to try to cram this list into the mornings like a gorgeous girl morning routine, but I’m not a morning person, and it set me up for failure. Now I just know that it’s part of my daily schedule—like work, meeting a friend, or running errands, and I have to fit other things around them because they’re non-negotiable. Maybe this is how everyone thinks of their to-do list and it just seems novel to me.
My list only used to be daily yoga & meditation, but I haven’t been great about meditating. Daily yoga is an established habit for me, but I got a little sloppy around the holidays. I’m hoping to tack meditation on yoga to cement that new habit.
When I want to add habits to my life I start with a very short, super achievable time period (usually 10 minutes) and I try to pair it with an established habit. I learned this method of developing new habits, called “habit stacking,” from a podcast or YouTube video that I’ve now lost track of, but here’s a great episode from Huberman Lab about making habits—Huberman Lab podcast: The Science of Making and Breaking Habits.
The Huberman Lab podcast is an incredible resource for all things health, both physical and mental. I mention it a couple times in this post. If you’re interested in self improvement, better sleep, or better health you really should check it out. Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford.
Atomic Habits by James Clear is also all about building habits with small daily changes. It’s currently in my to-read list.
The Huberman protocol for daily journaling is my current go-to as a slacker trying to get the biggest benefit. I’ll take more time as needed or if I find prompts that interest me. I’m also about to start reading The Artist’s Way and that also requires journaling (called Morning Pages). I do this while eating breakfast as an easy multitask and to keep me from mindlessly scrolling socials. Here’s his image from Instagram if you want to try it out. It’s very quick—one word answers are okay!
I have given myself a ban on TV watching for January. After work I usually flop onto the couch after feeding the dogs and watch a couple episodes of something. Lately, I’ve swapped that out for sketching, reading, catching up on yoga and meditation, or working on finishing a crochet project while listening to an audiobook. New Years Resolutions to me are not only what do you want to do, but what you do not want to do going forward. You usually have to give something up to make time for the thing that you want more.
2024 goals
$300 in monthly Patreon support—this would mean doubling my current support
Pay off some debts—a dog surgery from last year & a tiny bit of credit card debt
Get Trinity’s second surgery ($7K)
Buy a house—if you know someone selling a fixer-upper farmhouse on some land…
Finish 4-6 more pages of Wild Dogs—two weeks off is already on the books!
Put together a pitch packet for Wild Dogs
Shop Wild Dogs to graphic novel agents
Use up the sketch book & drawing supplies I got for Christmas
Monthly blog posts
Research & develop art project kits
Launch art project kits
Get the American Cider Association Pommelier certification
Read 25 (or more!) books
Book club The Artist’s Way
Fill in chestpiece tattoo honeycomb with honey & pollen
Get “feral tree” tattoo
Be more present (especially in my time with Max)—limit phone & TV time
Work on setting and holding boundaries—I’m a recovering people pleaser
Stop negative self talk
I wish you all the best in this new year! Keep creating & keep striving to be a better you—in this time of self-improvement and beyond. I’ll leave you with this quote I think about a lot since hearing it from drag queen Birdie @TheMotherBirdie (please go follow them, they inspire and uplift me every time they come across my feed).
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we live our lives.”—Annie Dillard