Resolution Check-In
Whether it’s the start of a new year or a big transitional date such as a birthday, we have a tendency to focus on resolutions. What is it we want to change for the future? Perhaps, most importantly, how can we keep our creative resolutions?
What path will you take towards your creative resolutions?
Image Description: A landscape in the desert. The skies are blue but cloudy. The road is a winding dirt road. The word “Start” is painted in white on the beginning of the road. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Over the past month, I have focused on one of my resolutions to transition my second bedroom from a hoarder’s palace storage space back to being a creative studio, something it slowly but steadily morphed away over the past decade. My methodology is somewhere between KonMari and Unfuck Your Habitat. Papers are my achilles heel, so that is what I have been focusing on this week.
Today I made the decision to finally part with all my check records (old canceled checks and registers). It was a trip down memory lane to see checks going back a few decades, a pre-Internet time when almost all my financial transactions involved writing a check at some point. My first ever credit card bill. My first ever rent payment. Tickets to concerts I fondly remember. Dues to businesses that no longer exist or that are rarely a part of my life any longer (wow, I spent a lot on photo processing). A donation in memory of a beloved family member who passed away. Reimbursements to friends without the emojis of Venmo. There was a wistful part of me that wanted to preserve this part of my personal history. Instead, I took a few minutes to go through them, smile at the memories, and then place any that were older than three years in a box ready to be taken for shredding. I can’t say I went as far as to thank the checks for their service, as Marie Kondo might suggest, but I decided the future needed to take priority over the past.
What does my paper farewell exercise have to do with creative resilience? Everything.
While we often think of resolutions as proclamations we make about something we want to do (losing weight, stopping smoking, eating healthier, exercising more, getting organized, finally writing that book, starting that side business, or making more art), proclamations are merely announcements. They are not plans. They are rarely specific enough. We often start with a lot of momentum, but have difficulty keeping up that pace once life’s realities get in the way. Even if we shout out our proclamations at a New Year’s Party or on social media, do they really involve accountability? What’s worse is that many resolutions are focused on fixing failures (or perceived failures). We can end up dwelling on what we feel we are not achieving rather than celebrating what we have achieved as building blocks towards future goals.
How can we think about resolutions in more productive ways? Recently two colleagues posted their approaches and gave me permission to share them with you. In both cases, they also borrowed the inspirations for these approaches, so please feel free to borrow and share as you see fit.
Image Description: Two hand-written notes, one titled “Completing 2019", the other titled “Creating 2020.” They each contain a series of questions on them that are included below in the text. Images courtesy of Anne L’Ecuyer, used by permission.
Anne L’Ecuyer (who founded Art Lives Here and is now Executive Director of Arts on the Block) shared two sets of questions that she completes at the cusp of a year:
COMPLETING ________ (generally the past year)
1. Significant Accomplishments
2. What are you proud of?
3. Where did you miss the mark?
4. Any regrets? Anything that needs mending?
5. What did you learn?
6. What strengths did you develop?
7. What were the barriers or disappointments?
8. What should we cheer about for you? Who do you want to praise?
CREATING _________ (generally the new year)
1. What are you committed to this year?
2. What do you need to develop in yourself to get there?
3. Who is important to connect with this year?
4. What do you want to take on, explore, or master?
5. What do you know about yourself that could stop you?
6. What is this coming year really about?
7. Anything else you want to make possible or accomplish?
What I appreciate about this approach is that it gives us space to reflect on disappointments or perceived failures and how we learned from them, while still forcing us to lead and close with things that make us feel proud, accomplished, and positive. The resolution questions for the coming year do not allow us to announce a resolution alone, but give us some context for what that resolution really means in our larger life, as well as planning tools on how we can achieve it. For example, my answer to Question 6 is that the coming year is for me to make more space for my creative pursuits, both literally and figuratively.
Some creatives may be more visual thinkers. For you, filmmaker Chithra Jeyaram (who founded RealTalkies where she works on both documentary and fiction films) takes another approach. She posted a simple four image grid on her social media accounts where she announced what her four main goals were for the coming year. Three of these goals were related to different film projects at different stages of development, and one was a personal goal.
Image Description: A collage of four images with text on them. The first image is a group of people in a kitchen. Chithra, a female filmmaker has turned her camera on a mother and her two daughters. Text on the image reads “World Premiere @OurDaughtersDoc. The second image is of Chithra in running clothes standing in front of a statue of two runners. Text on the image reads “Run a sub 4 marathon.” The third image is a shadow of a female filmmaker standing by a tree. Text on the image reads “Have a narrative script ready to develop.” The fourth image is of Chithra standing with her camera among a group of people (mostly children) in India. Text on the image reads “Launch 1001 Breast Cancer Nights Prototype.”
Image courtesy Chithra Jeyaram. Used by permission.
While this visual approach does not necessarily allow one to provide the whole blueprint of how to get there, Chithra’s goals are specific enough that she can keep this image close at hand as she works to achieve these four goals as a reminder of what her big picture plans are for the year.
If you are visual but need something more tactile, you can adapt the image grid approach to making a collage or a vision board that can incorporate imagery and words to set your intentions or give you a visual reminder of how you want to focus your time and energy. If you are musical, perhaps composing some lyrics that outline your goals can help as a motivational tool. When planning for your creative future, why not draw on your own creative talents?
Another approach that you can try in combination with any of these or on its own is to make a Goals Sheet. This is something I used as a facilitator of a documentary filmmaker fellowship program at my previous job with Docs In Progress. At its most basic, a Goals Sheet is a document where you write down your goal(s), following SMART goals guidelines.
Image Description: Colorful graphic that outlines the SMART Goals. Text description is included in content of blog below. Image is from a U.S. Joint Base Charleston website and is considered in the public domain.
For those not familiar with this project management tool, SMART is an acronym for creating goals that are:
Specific: Who is involved? What do I want to accomplish? Where will it be done? Why am I doing this?
Measurable: Can I track the progress and measure the outcome? Are there numeric milestones in terms of how much I will accomplish or how many time units I will put in? How will I know when the goal is accomplished?
Attainable/Achievable: Is the goal reasonable enough to be accomplished within all its parameters?
Relevant/Realistic: Is the goal actually worth my efforts to meet my larger goals or needs? Does it fit in with my immediate and long term plans?
Timely/Time-Bound: What is my time limit to achieve the goal? Can I put a specific deadline date?
To use my own example, the big goal would be:
By June 1, 2020, Erica will transform the second bedroom of her home into a studio where she can have a dedicated space for her creative pursuits, including painting, writing, and film producing.
It is specific in that it outlines who is doing this, where this is being done, what is the desired outcome, and how it ties into my larger work goals. It is measurable in that I either have the space ready by the deadline or not. It is relevant because I want to have a dedicated home space to pursue other creative goals. It is timely in that I have created a date deadline to achieve this. While I would love to have the studio set up as soon as possible, as soon as possible is an indefinite timeframe. Instead I have allotted six months to reach this goal, which seems realistic since I am balancing this with other things in my life.
In terms of whether it is attainable, that is where I am would go one step further to break the goals sheet down into mini goals and action steps with their own deadlines:
By January 31
1. Create a vision board for what I want the room to look like/be inspired by. Hang it in a place where I will see it throughout the process.
2. Clear stuff off the floor into trash, recycle, shredding, or keep. Place stuff to keep temporarily in closet so it can make room for other clean-up. Get rid of recycling and shredding on a weekly basis.
3. Go through all papers and divide them into recycle, shred, or keep. Place stuff to keep in a pile for filing.
By February 29
1. File all the kept papers.
2. Divide remaining books, supplies, furniture, and materials into donate, trash, recycle, or keep. Place stuff to keep temporarily in closet so can make room for other clean-up.
3. Get rid of stuff to be recycled or donated on a weekly basis. Take remaining special recycle items such as electronics to an electronics recycling. Rent a truck if needed or arrange a pickup for any unneeded furniture.
By March 31
1. Determine which wall art to keep. Make sure it is framed or able to be hung. Get rid of any excess wall art.
2. Decide what, if any, additional furniture or storage solutions may be needed and purchase.
By April 30
1. Paint wall.
2. Install and arrange additional furniture and hang wall art.
By May 31
1. Organize supplies and materials.
Now there may be professional organizers out there who might advise a different approach. For example, a lot of people advise to file as you go. I have never found that works for me. It is easier if I separate the process of deaccessioning and organizing or I can easily get bogged down. Additionally some may notice that this goals plan has a lot of work in the early months and less as I move forward. I did that intentionally because I know that January is likely to be less busy with other commitments than later in the year. I know that the room needs to be completely cleared for the wall painting process. I would like to wait until it is warmer outside for the wall painting so that I can air out the smell of paint by opening the windows. I have only one goal noted in May because I want that month to be a cushion in case I fall behind schedule.
This brings me to another important point. A Goals Sheet is a living document. While it is good to be ambitious about your goals, there is also this thing called LIFE. Anyone who has a 9 to 5 job, clients, travel plans, health challenges, a partner, kids, or aging parents knows the reality of the adage “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Similarly you might be trying to pursue several goals at the same time, so you need to make sure they are not only realistic in and of themselves, but in terms of how they require your time and focus simultaneously. For example, I also have some writing and filmmaking goals that cover the same time period as the creative space goal, so I need to allocate time for each of them. If unexpected things happen and throw me behind or off-course on my goals, I don’t throw out your goals sheet. I edit it.
While I am all in favor of adjusting goals where needed, you want to be careful with this as well. Constantly pushing back goals can be a recipe for frustration. The best way to integrate a goal setting process is to have one or more people keep you accountable, positive, and on-track. This could be a colleague who is doing something similar, a formalized group (if there aren’t available fellowships in your discipline, your could seek out or start a group via a local arts center, community center, or Meetup.com). It could even be a coach (whether a life coach, a creativity coach, or a discipline-specific coach). Where you have obstacles along the way, talk them out with the person/people keeping you accountable, and work with them to adjust your goals so they are more realistic but still moving you forward. It’s all about continuing to move forward, at whatever pace., and not letting your creative resolutions become a check you can’t cash.
Feel free to share your own ways to keep your creative resolutions in the Comments section.
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