Happy 2022!! I hope this year is off to an amazingly good start for you all. Mine is so much better than last year (mostly because I’m not recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery). 😊
But seriously, I wanted to take this time to talk about Goal Setting. I mean, it’s the new year. We are all supposed to set a goal for the new year. Yes?
Goal-setting is a THING for the New Year. Whether you call them goals, resolutions, or intentions or pick a word for the year, or just make a list of things you want to accomplish, it all boils down to one thing… some action that you are supposed to be doing that makes you feel better.
That sounds wonderful. Okay. I’m in! In past new years’, I have had many different resolutions.
One year it was, to work less (If you know me, you know how ridiculous that resolution was. It didn’t last a week).
Then I moved onto choosing a saying for my year. I chose “be less stressed”. (also ridiculous).
The next year, I moved to a single word that was more positive, like “balance”. (That was a good thing. It didn’t last, but it was a good idea.)
And let’s face it, the last two years have simply been taking a deep breath and racing to the finish the year before you dropped. Am I right?
So, this year, I decided to try something completely different. Instead of picking something that I knew I could never live up to, thereby actually increasing my own stress (ironic, right?).
I’m not doing a resolution.
I’m not using a saying,
I’m DOING something.
Every Friday I am now calling “FUN Friday”.
(That’s just my name. You can choose your own.)
On FUN Friday, I am giving myself permission to do whatever I want– work on a new idea, write a new proposal, have an entire brainstorming day, write fiction (!), or just sit around and watch Star Trek the Next Generation all day. (Yes, I’m a Trekkie, but you can pick your own binge show).
Mostly, I’m making it a day to relax my brain and put deadlines aside. I’m hoping that will reduce the stress and frustration I feel at not being able to do all of the different things I want to explore. (Yes! That fiction book will be finished this year!)
How’s it going so far?
Well for one thing, it’s the second Friday of the year, and I’m STILL doing this! That right there tells me that the FUN Friday thing is a much better idea than any resolution or word for the year I ever picked.
And secondly, on the first FUN Friday that I ever did, I managed to relax enough and clear my brain so that a book idea that I had been trying to figure out for almost two years FINALLY broke through. (It was at 11 o’clock at night, right after I laid down to go to sleep, but hey, whenever it happens, is fine with us writers, right?)
SO, today is another FUN Friday!
What will I be doing today?
I don’t know.
The best part about a FUN Friday is that I don’t plan for them. I wake up in the morning, and well, just do whatever I feel like. It’s very free-ing, especially for a person who normally goes through life at Mach 10 with her hair on fire!
What I say to all of you writers and really, anyone who reads this blog is: Don’t forget to HAVE FUN in your life!
I know it might make you roll your eyes with the amount of work, stress, and everything else you have to do. But if you take a day, an hour, a few minutes to just have fun, you won’t regret it. In fact, doing that, may even help you reduce your stress.
TGIF Everyone!
What will you do with your FUN Friday?
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Jennifer is also the creator and administrator of #STEMTuesday and #STEAMTeam2020
I love the idea of FUN FRIDAY! I’m going to try it!
This sounds like a marvelous idea Jen!!
I’m reading my own poetry to 8th graders who were assigned to write it today. I find that if I make doable resolutions, I feel good about it. I have taken my vitamins for two weeks straight. WOOOOO!