6 x 8 + 4 = Resolutions!
Jan. 3rd, 2011 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeIn case you haven’t noticed, I love the end of the year. The holidays are a great time to remind ourselves what’s really important, and by and large I think we do. Sure, there’s the craziness of materialism and bad vibes put off by overworked shoppers (and workers) in search of the peace that’s meant to be found this time of year, but I think there are always one or two moments where we find ourselves contented and grateful. And I also think that the more we look for them, the more of them there are, lurking between the hunts for parking spaces, the drama with family and friends, the stress of getting everyone on the same page. Maybe it’s just the naivete that comes with joining the holiday scene later than everyone else, but I hope I never lose the warm glow this time of year gives to me.
Now, though, the end of the year is behind us, and it’s time to look forward to the long dark night of January and February. The next two months will see the same old problems creeping up on us, sapping our will to be better people, breaking our focus on New Year’s resolutions. We all make them. We all break them. I’m no stranger to looking back on the hope and potential I had one year ago and cringing. Where did it all go? How did I lose sight of what I set out to do so earnestly last year? Well, to be honest, life just gets in the way. It’s hard to sustain the drive for betterment over the course of an entire year. Hell, it’s hard to do it for a couple of months. So by March, the laundry list of things we needed to do this year is discarded.
I’m not ready to give up on the idea of resolutions just yet. Yeah, we should be able to start bettering ourselves at any time, and January 1st is a pretty arbitrary time to focus on for it, but so what? If we need the crutch to get us started, use the damn crutch.
What I’m trying to do this year is break up my resolutions into shorter, more manageable goals, so I always have something to work towards. By doing that it’s easier to measure progress, I’m forced to come up with an achievable frame for what it is I want to do and the time for reflection is built-in -- I need to figure out whether or not I’ve achieved my goals before I can really think about the next ones. If I haven’t, I can keep on trying until I get it right. If I have, I can use that success to springboard me to the next goal.
I’ve read somewhere that it takes about six weeks to build a habit properly. I’ve always thought it was a month, but it’s nice to have that extra two weeks to make sure something’s firmly taken hold. So, the plan is to create eight ‘pods’ of goals throughout the year, each lasting six weeks. At the end of the pod, I see whether I’ve succeeded or failed and why, and set goals for the next six weeks. Six weeks is also a good chunk of time to devote to a project (or piece of one) so that the deadline isn’t so far I put it off, or so close I can’t manage it. If I devote a little time each day to it, there’s no reason I can’t complete something in that time frame.
For the first pod, I want to focus on the basics: being a better (more consistent) writer, being consistent with my diet, and being consistent about my appearance. I’ve had vague goals for all of these at some point last year, and they’ve all failed, so I figure it’s a good test to see how the new system handles.
Goal 1. Write 3500 words per week for six weeks. This comes out to 21,000 words by the end of Pod 1. I feel like I should clarify this a bit; it includes blog posts (posted here, on Blogger and FA), short stories, character studies and the like. The word count only goes towards things I put up through various sites; that means prep work for short stories don’t count, but character studies I put into FA scraps will. The goal, at least for the short term, is to make writing a consistent habit; once that’s sorted I can work on the more involved work of creating short stories, novels and the like.
Goal 2. Average 1750 Calories a day for six weeks. This should get me a weight loss of 1 - 1.5 pounds per week. It’s about what I’ve been doing, inconsistently, for some time, but focusing on making sure I keep to that will provide me with a nice foundation for tweaking the caloric intake as necessary. Calories burned through exercise (usually running, elliptical training or weight lifting) will be included in the count. Sorry, Laz, I know you think that’s cheating; we’ll see if it hurts me too much at the end of the pod.
Goal 3. Make sure effort goes into looking my best. This is the most nebulous goal, because there aren’t hard numbers there. But it’s simple enough to do; pay attention to my grooming so that I don’t go out looking too scraggly. I have a bad habit of missing a lot of dates with my razor, and far too often I’ll go out with just jeans and any old t-shirt I can find. It’s time to start looking like some thought went into my appearance. I might not look dapper by the end of six weeks, but I’d at least like to look well-kempt.
I’m only going with three goals because I really don’t want to overload myself, and it’s better if I put all of my focus into just a few things. There are other things I’d like to get started on this year, but those will have to wait. My priorities are set.
The end of this first pod will be February 14th. I should have a post up no later than the 17th going over how I did and setting the goals for the next six weeks. I’m already looking forward to posting rousing successes all across the board.
Now, though, the end of the year is behind us, and it’s time to look forward to the long dark night of January and February. The next two months will see the same old problems creeping up on us, sapping our will to be better people, breaking our focus on New Year’s resolutions. We all make them. We all break them. I’m no stranger to looking back on the hope and potential I had one year ago and cringing. Where did it all go? How did I lose sight of what I set out to do so earnestly last year? Well, to be honest, life just gets in the way. It’s hard to sustain the drive for betterment over the course of an entire year. Hell, it’s hard to do it for a couple of months. So by March, the laundry list of things we needed to do this year is discarded.
I’m not ready to give up on the idea of resolutions just yet. Yeah, we should be able to start bettering ourselves at any time, and January 1st is a pretty arbitrary time to focus on for it, but so what? If we need the crutch to get us started, use the damn crutch.
What I’m trying to do this year is break up my resolutions into shorter, more manageable goals, so I always have something to work towards. By doing that it’s easier to measure progress, I’m forced to come up with an achievable frame for what it is I want to do and the time for reflection is built-in -- I need to figure out whether or not I’ve achieved my goals before I can really think about the next ones. If I haven’t, I can keep on trying until I get it right. If I have, I can use that success to springboard me to the next goal.
I’ve read somewhere that it takes about six weeks to build a habit properly. I’ve always thought it was a month, but it’s nice to have that extra two weeks to make sure something’s firmly taken hold. So, the plan is to create eight ‘pods’ of goals throughout the year, each lasting six weeks. At the end of the pod, I see whether I’ve succeeded or failed and why, and set goals for the next six weeks. Six weeks is also a good chunk of time to devote to a project (or piece of one) so that the deadline isn’t so far I put it off, or so close I can’t manage it. If I devote a little time each day to it, there’s no reason I can’t complete something in that time frame.
For the first pod, I want to focus on the basics: being a better (more consistent) writer, being consistent with my diet, and being consistent about my appearance. I’ve had vague goals for all of these at some point last year, and they’ve all failed, so I figure it’s a good test to see how the new system handles.
Goal 1. Write 3500 words per week for six weeks. This comes out to 21,000 words by the end of Pod 1. I feel like I should clarify this a bit; it includes blog posts (posted here, on Blogger and FA), short stories, character studies and the like. The word count only goes towards things I put up through various sites; that means prep work for short stories don’t count, but character studies I put into FA scraps will. The goal, at least for the short term, is to make writing a consistent habit; once that’s sorted I can work on the more involved work of creating short stories, novels and the like.
Goal 2. Average 1750 Calories a day for six weeks. This should get me a weight loss of 1 - 1.5 pounds per week. It’s about what I’ve been doing, inconsistently, for some time, but focusing on making sure I keep to that will provide me with a nice foundation for tweaking the caloric intake as necessary. Calories burned through exercise (usually running, elliptical training or weight lifting) will be included in the count. Sorry, Laz, I know you think that’s cheating; we’ll see if it hurts me too much at the end of the pod.
Goal 3. Make sure effort goes into looking my best. This is the most nebulous goal, because there aren’t hard numbers there. But it’s simple enough to do; pay attention to my grooming so that I don’t go out looking too scraggly. I have a bad habit of missing a lot of dates with my razor, and far too often I’ll go out with just jeans and any old t-shirt I can find. It’s time to start looking like some thought went into my appearance. I might not look dapper by the end of six weeks, but I’d at least like to look well-kempt.
I’m only going with three goals because I really don’t want to overload myself, and it’s better if I put all of my focus into just a few things. There are other things I’d like to get started on this year, but those will have to wait. My priorities are set.
The end of this first pod will be February 14th. I should have a post up no later than the 17th going over how I did and setting the goals for the next six weeks. I’m already looking forward to posting rousing successes all across the board.
