New Year's Resolutions

A few years ago, when I was right in the midst of my corporate whore days, I started giving myself the same kind of goals personally every January 1 that I gave myself professionally, meaning SMART goals -- you know, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Rewarding, and Time-bound. These goals were aggressive and I gave myself many of them. I probably had twenty goals that first year. This sounds a little crazy in hindsight but it was all self-inflicted and to be honest, I really love a good goal. I think that you achieve more if you have big goals that really stretch you, and that nothing bad has to happen if you don't achieve those goals so there's no harm in making them big. There's magic in just putting them out into the universe.

This year I started thinking about my new year's resolutions back in November, and I wrote a whole bunch of them down. This was before we knew Keith was sick, before we knew that this year wasn't going to be like any the years before. So here it is, January first, and I want to put my goals out there in the universe. But I'm not naive, I know that these aren't going to be easy, or even important to me in the coming months. In all likelihood this is going to be a very hard year. But I still want them out there. 

vgriff's 2017 resolutions

1. Stop complaining. 
2. Develop a side gig, ie., a creative project that gets put out into the world, ideally with a sustainable business model. Maybe even a couple of them. 
3. Continue making art. Make more of it. Try new stuff and get better at some of the things I already love.
4. Read at least 75 books, half of them non-fiction.
5. Develop a writing voice. Write however it makes sense, but try to make it public and try to make it thoughtful.
6. Try to walk at least 30 minutes every day.

So there you go, universe. Let's try to make 2017 suck as little as possible.
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