In addition to taking regular stock on my daily activities, I’m also trying to do larger action planning for this year and beyond. This post is a quick assessment of where I succeeded in the first month of the year, and what remains to be done:
Steps taken:
- Named each and every day of January 2014 (here’s why I do this).
- Finished Be Happy Be Happy Be Happy, and made it 2/3rds of the way through The Sea Concerto, both new full-length plays. I also wrote the short play After the Party it’s the Ever After Party, and continued devising/writing Faust. I am not yet on the pace to write a play a month, per this vow, but it was a step in the right direction because…
- …I wrote almost every day this month. This was made possible by the new practice of writing on the subway, which has proved surprisingly successful. The challenge, however, is matching the “hour-every-day” strategy with at least a few days every month where I spend 6-8 hours totally focused on writing. I’ll make that a goal for February!
- Practiced Spanish almost every day. I’m now reading quite well, but am still struggling mightily with verbal comprehension. A step for the future, for sure, if perhaps not February.
- Took hold of my financial mindfulness by attending the wonderful Business of Art workshop led by Elaine Grogan Luttrull, and then creating a join Mint account for Heather and myself.
- Last week, I cooked most of my meals (vegetarian always, vegan often, local and organic whenever possible), reducing my expenses and upping the ethics of my consumption. It’s a big goal for February for me to keep that going!
- Took 40+ online actions towards various political/social justice goals…now to gets my boots on the ground of some real activism!
- Reinvigorated the Flux blog with more regular posts
- Planned and began the process of writing The Book of Hours, and added several poems
- Planned and began the process of writing The Hyperlink Bible
Goals/Steps to take in February:
- Finish (and in many cases, begin) goal-setting and action planning for my various areas of interest in 2014
- Finish The Sea Concerto, one additional full length play, and 15 pages of a new full length play towards my Play a Month goal
- Finish the second chapter of the first book in my After Earth series
- Complete writing and Spanish practice every day–can I go a whole month without missing a single day?
- Stress test our current monthly budget to see if it’s feasible
- Write two poems for The Book of Hours
- Add four quotes to The Hyperlink Bible
- Write the first post of the Ethics for the Anthropocene essay series
- Write the first post of The Common Reader essay series
- Practice music at least once a week
- Practice juggling at least once a week
- Participate in at least one direct social justice action a month
- Jog at least once a week
- Do yoga at least once a week (setting the bar nice and low!)
- Double the frequency of my push-ups and squat jumps
- Submit plays to at least three contests/opportunities a week
- Create an action plan for my indie theatre book idea
And that’s not factoring in Flux, TCG and NET–woosh! But I think I can make each of these work if I publicly commit to them and stay mindful (and gentle with myself when I fall short).
I had hoped to have clearly articulated goals and action plans across all these areas by the end of January; now I think it more likely that by the end of February I’ll have completed all of my personal goals/planning, and by the end of March, hopefully integrated them into my Flux/TCG/NET goals so that all engines hum in harmony.
Here we go!
Corinna Schulenburg 