Looking Ahead...

Brent and I were talking last night about me wrapping up my goals for 2023. He said I'd have to bump my numbers for 2024 on a few things. 

I told him, Oh no. I'm not setting goals for 2024. It's a year of just doing the stuff I do without having numbers attached. 

He asked what the over under was on how long I'd make it without setting goals. 

Which is sort of a goal so I declined to name the odds. 

But he's right. The closer we get to the end of the year the weirder it is for me not to be sitting down and pencilling out my numbers. And looking back at my goal setting for 2023 the things that were more esoteric, I didn't actually do. I stuck with the things that were solid, do this this many times. Which is how my brain works. And also part of why I want to try something different next year. 

I tend to prioritize the things I've attached numbers to. Even though none of it really means anything to anyone else but me. There is no one counting on me writing 4 blogs a week, one of them fiction. There is no one who cares if I read 12 self help books. There is no one who is depending on me reading the Fantastic Stranglings pick. It's all just stuff I do to keep my brain busy and focused. 

But the things that I would like to do that don't have hard numbers attached tend to get shunted off to the side. Later, I'll get to them later. But later is filled with something that has a goal number attached to it. So...

So next year I really want to see what happens when I don't do that. When I just say that workouts, writing and reading are things I do because I do them, but they aren't attached to a number of times I have to do them. Which means if I want to spend the day working on something else there is nothing standing in my way. It's all fine.

The last time I tried this approach was 2020 and well, that was a bitch of a year. I'm not saying that not setting goals caused a worldwide pandemic because the universe did not know how to handle a free wheeling me but...

Seriously though it didn't really give me any sort of idea as to how to just be in the world with the goal thing put aside. It was such a messed up year and nothing made sense. And thank goodness I had no goals because I wouldn't have hit any of them and that would have just added another layer of angst on to a lousy time.

But 2024 will be better! Or at least I hope it will. And if things start going south I will set some mid year goals so fast it will make your head spin!