How I set Goals and Intentions This Year
Setting process goals, life as mystery, and sticking to my sphere of influence
The turning of the year always feels full of possibility and anticipation. Every January I reflect on the year past and plan for the year ahead, and I inevitably fall under the spell of MORE: I will do more and be more, becoming a shiny, optimized version of myself, as if goal-setting alone is the ticket to an updated superhuman operating system.
Not this year. I’m taking a different approach in part because 2024 looks like it will hold yet more change for me. I don’t know for sure whether I’ll be moving house again this year or not and I don’t know what my time, space, energy, or other resources will be. This has always been a deeply unsettling state for me to hold, hovering in my belly, this unknowing. And honestly, it’s still not my comfy place, but I guess I’ve had enough practice over the past few years that I am feeling more comfortable with it. I even have moments when I feel curious, like what will happen next? I don’t know! It’s a mystery! There’s a bit of suspense in it. Like hearing a song for the first time. Like letting a painting invent itself as you paint it.
So this year my goals are less quantitative and more qualitative, less about metrics, and more about process. Some of the fun things on my list this year are writing this newsletter, painting some super big canvases in the studio, making some creative workshop offerings later in the year, and growing out the grey streak in my hair! I am working through a yoga teacher training and practicing in some form, on or off my mat, every day. But my most important goals and intentions this year are subtle and interior: handling change with grace and flexibility, cultivating an internal sense of “home” and stability, and learning to occupy and act from the present moment. If I can keep these intentions centered this year, they will make all of my other goals possible. I still have a few persistent legacy goals hanging around–getting physically stronger and exploring new gallery relationships are the two big ones that show up year after year–but I’m focusing less on the outcome and more on the process.
This shift feels so, so good.
Most importantly, the one thing that all of my goals and intentions have in common this year is that they are all within my sphere of influence. None of them are crazy ambitious or attainable mostly by luck. Many of them will be the results of choices that I can make every day, either habits or mindsets or direct actions that I can take. For example, I have no control over whether new galleries want to work with me or not, but I do have control over whether I research and visit galleries, and whether I reach out to them to share my work, so those are the things on my list, not “get another gallery”. Less hope, more action. Again, this just feels so right and good.
How about you? What are you leaving behind and what are you embracing this year? What are you most excited about? What are your subtle interior goals that make everything else possible? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Things of Interest…
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” -Alan Watts
Reading: The “Making Time” newsletter, written by Sarai Mitnick has been one of my favorites this past year. She writes in her introduction post: “The circumstances of life will probably not slow down for most of us, as I've learned. Let's figure out how to slow it from the inside instead.” Love that idea of slowing it down from the inside!
Also: “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson—my second time through this one, and while it’s definitely not for everyone, its exactly what I needed this month, like a straight-talking friend urging me to have better boundaries and give a f*ck about the things that matter most.
And also: “Wintering” by Katherine May, highly recommend.
Last week I spent half an hour in one of my favorite places ever, the Conservatory of Flowers in San Fransico. Wandering through the 146-year-old Victorian greenhouse is incredibly balmy and soothing, so for everyone experiencing the incredibly cold weather in parts of North America this week, here’s a video tour to warm you up:
Happy New Year Lisa. I love and cherish your writing. Thank you for long moments of comfort and warmth whenever I get your newslletter.