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Challenge #4 asks us to set goals for ourselves, whether fannish or not, in public or in private. Here's the extra text:
Goals can also be tricky if they create obligations rather than endpoints and checkpoints. "I have to do this" is a very different setting than "I want to do this," and there are consequences involved if you end up turning a "want" into a "have to". It's like turning a hobby into a hustle or deciding to go pro. Getting stuff done on a deadline can be the worst thing ever to getting stuff done.
Which isn't to say that goals aren't useful. Some people thrive on deadline pressure, and others really like having a set schedule where time is devoted to various tasks toward an endpoint in sight. Our, sometimes, they like having something to go to that has a definite end and stop so they can evaluate and decide to keep going or to say "That was fun, but I don't intend on doing that ever again."
Goals don't work all that well for me. I tend to take failure personally (as in "The reason why this goal was not met had something to do with you as a person and your intrinsic worth") and approach their completion as something that needs intense effort until they are done, rather than as something that can be worked at a little at a time over time. Because I tend to miss slow improvement by focusing on what has not yet been done or mastered. Progress is, but it often takes an outside perspective for me to notice that progress has happened. And, to some degree, a lot of my progress towards becoming a better human is absence of things that would have happened before. If they reoccur, that's seen internally as total failure, rather than "it has been Z days since the last time this happened." I would never demand perfection of anyone other than myself, because I understand how much it messes someone up to internalize that perfection is the only way you don't suffer getting made fun of by your school peer group.
Habits would be a better thing to strive for, because habits are about making a regular time commitment to the thing. So hobbies and habits go well together, and there's (no/less) pressure to succeed to a high level for something that you've only committed time to. And, eventually, with time and practice, you do get good at something, even if you don't notice it. Habits are also schedulable in external memory, which makes them more doable and easier to remember.
So, habits, goals, or other such, for the upcoming year?
Good skill and fortune to all of your in your endeavors for the year, whether it is in achieving lofty goals or in sticking around long enough to spite the assholes (or politicians, but for the grand majority, I repeat myself) who thought this was the year they would finally get rid of you.
The beginning of a new year can feel like a magical time, full of promise and hope. It can be a great time to make a few goals for the year ahead. Your goals don't need to be big or span the whole year. They can be as big or as small as you want them to be. You don't even need to complete your goals in order to consider them successful. Every little step closer toward what you're trying to achieve can be viewed as a success.Goals are, to put it mildly, difficult for a large part of the population. If your energy, time, and brainpower are already consumed with the lowest points of Maslow's pyramid, there isn't enough left over to contribute to the idea of thinking about the future. And a lot of things that would help with that area scarily dependent on things outside your control, including whether or not enough of the people who also live in your nation-state think you are a human that deserves to be there and to succeed. And whether those people work in the necessary industries and professions so that you can get through all of the things that are between you and the thing that will help.
Remember: progress not perfection ♥
[Challenge Text]
Maybe you're not really into making goals, maybe you choose a word or a theme for the year instead. Feel free to post about that. And if you've already made a post about your goals this year — feel free to link to that if you'd like!
Goals can also be tricky if they create obligations rather than endpoints and checkpoints. "I have to do this" is a very different setting than "I want to do this," and there are consequences involved if you end up turning a "want" into a "have to". It's like turning a hobby into a hustle or deciding to go pro. Getting stuff done on a deadline can be the worst thing ever to getting stuff done.
Which isn't to say that goals aren't useful. Some people thrive on deadline pressure, and others really like having a set schedule where time is devoted to various tasks toward an endpoint in sight. Our, sometimes, they like having something to go to that has a definite end and stop so they can evaluate and decide to keep going or to say "That was fun, but I don't intend on doing that ever again."
Goals don't work all that well for me. I tend to take failure personally (as in "The reason why this goal was not met had something to do with you as a person and your intrinsic worth") and approach their completion as something that needs intense effort until they are done, rather than as something that can be worked at a little at a time over time. Because I tend to miss slow improvement by focusing on what has not yet been done or mastered. Progress is, but it often takes an outside perspective for me to notice that progress has happened. And, to some degree, a lot of my progress towards becoming a better human is absence of things that would have happened before. If they reoccur, that's seen internally as total failure, rather than "it has been Z days since the last time this happened." I would never demand perfection of anyone other than myself, because I understand how much it messes someone up to internalize that perfection is the only way you don't suffer getting made fun of by your school peer group.
Habits would be a better thing to strive for, because habits are about making a regular time commitment to the thing. So hobbies and habits go well together, and there's (no/less) pressure to succeed to a high level for something that you've only committed time to. And, eventually, with time and practice, you do get good at something, even if you don't notice it. Habits are also schedulable in external memory, which makes them more doable and easier to remember.
So, habits, goals, or other such, for the upcoming year?
- Peace on Terra, good will towards fen. Which might be best rendered as "do no harm, but take no shit," as a sticker I have suggests.
- Write regularly. Which will likely involve a fair number of exchange fests, because I'm still a lot better at "yes, and" rather than developing a something completely out of whole cloth (they say, adamantly insisting you pay no attention to the part where participating in exchanges means having to provide optional details or other things that might help shape a story and give it direction, a skill that has been explicitly remarked upon as good by several exchange authors.)
- Continue to try to work on things being enjoyable because I am doing them, rather than because of their results. Which has the corollary of "know when to stop, and then stop, when something starts being more frustrating than enjoyable," which can be a problem for me. Especially when it's something that's just out of reach and seems entirely attainable of only the stars would align properly.
- And several more things that are more personal than I feel like sharing in this space and time, many of them related to figuring out how much I'm not actually doing fine, no matter how much I pretend I am, and trying to heal or provide useful workarounds for.
Good skill and fortune to all of your in your endeavors for the year, whether it is in achieving lofty goals or in sticking around long enough to spite the assholes (or politicians, but for the grand majority, I repeat myself) who thought this was the year they would finally get rid of you.
