Looking back to look forward
Oh, hi friends!
What went right for you in 2017?
What went wrong in 2017?
I think honestly answering those questions is the best way to begin any sort of talk about resolutions. You have to survey the past before you can get hopeful about the thank-god-it’s-an-even-number 2018 future. (Am I the only one that hated the 7 in 2017?!) Think about these questions in terms of your health, your relationships, your work, your anything.
And this isn’t about other people’s perception of your year. Or what looks good on paper. This is about how you felt about your year. Only you know your true capacity and potential.
What went right?
What went wrong?
And what are you going to do about it?
"While most jobs require plenty of shallow work, you should try to minimize and contain it as much as possible. For me, that means in my creative life I need to stop spending so much time looking up places to submit my writing and spend much more time actually writing."
So much of my friend Nina Semczuk’s latest piece hit me like a porg. (A porg is roughly the same size as a brick, right?) Please read the rest: 5 Practices from Deep Work by Cal Newport That’ll Change Your Life
Books on Books on Books
Planning to read more this year? Something I found fun in 2017 was joining the Goodreads Reading Challenge. You pick a goal of books to read for the year, then add (and/or review) titles as you finish them. My goal was 76, chosen because a friend’s goal was 75 and I’m a monster? (Joke’s on me—he read 60 books, while I stalled out at 36.) Setting a more modest goal this year, and have placed books ready for my eyeballs on my kitchen counter, bedside table, and in my purse to keep me from succumbing to the infinite scroll. Join me?
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara