New Year, New Approach

This little guy has nothing to do with the New Year, but he makes me smile.

I don't know what it is about the New Year that makes me feel like I have a clean slate.  It's not like there's any real change that occurs between December 31 and January 1, but it just feels like a fresh start.

I long ago gave up the idea of resolutions in favor of goals.  Resolutions always result in a feeling of guilt when they're broken, as almost always happens.  Goals feel more ongoing somehow, like something I'm striving towards rather than a set guideline or rule.  It's all terminology and semantics I suppose, but the word goal feels less strict to me.

This year I'm modifying my approach a little more and I'm stating several broad goals for the year, but I'm setting much smaller short term goals in each area.  I'm hopeful that this will keep me a little more focused in the short term.  Sort of a take it a day at a time approach, but on a monthly basis (or in some cases even weekly).  So rather than saying I'll post here 10 times per month, I'm saying my goal is to write blog posts more often, and my specific goal for January is at least 10 posts after this one.

I'm keeping most of the specifics to myself for the moment, although I may talk about some of them in the future, but here are my broad goals for the year.

• Health - Eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight
• Writing - Write more in all aspects, including blog posts, personal journal, short stories, novel
• Fiber Arts - Use my existing yarn/fiber stash and limit additions to stash, spin more