Do you have any new years resolutions?

[Altair]

Do you have any new years resolutions? If so what are they and how are they going so far?

[Nightdrift]

Yes indeed! From a prior topic, I had said

My resolutions tend to lean towards "how will I approach the year" rather than concrete goals, but I try to make one every year. This year, I would like to have more F U N and be a bit more flexible with things. I have been a little strict towards personal hobbies and passions, so I'd like to see what happens if I just let go of the metaphorical steering wheel.

Now, it has only been 20 days into the New Year, but I think things are going well so far. If having more "fun" is to treat projects with more leniency without feeling like it has become a second job in itself, I think things are going alright. Last night I felt myself growing a little weary with one of the projects I was working on, and switched over to just doodling silly things instead of continuing to work in frustration. In the past, I had struggled with putting a lot of pressure on my hobbies, so it was a nice little victory to actively reroute/set camp for the night instead of continuing to try forge ahead. I hope to continue being mindful of when a passion project begins to feel like a chore, and redirect my energy elsewhere (or just go to sleep LOL)

Did you have a resolution for 2022?

[di]

In a thread from about a month ago I said I need to be nicer to myself.

So I'll practice that and say that so far, I think I'm doing... okay!

If having more "fun" is to treat projects with more leniency without feeling like it has become a second job in itself, I think things are going alright. Last night I felt myself growing a little weary with one of the projects I was working on, and switched over to just doodling silly things instead of continuing to work in frustration.

That's such a good one... I need to be doing that too! Doodling is so fun

[Cy83rPr1mm13]

Seems the theme of 2022 is being kinder to one's self, and I'm no different! My resolution is to improve my productivity/recreation balance. Anyone else have a nasty habit of working on full blast for months on end until you're almost catatonic? here's to ending that habit before 2023!

[Rosaria Delacroix]

 

Performing a little necromancy on this thread- but I thought it would be nice to check in and see what the pulse is like with other people's resolutions, as we're barely stumbling into the New Year.

Something I've especially taken to is choosing a word to contemplate throughout the year- that serves as an underpinning theme, if you will. It's sort of a operational North Star, a guiding light and compass- a touchstone to return to when reflecting on the events that've occurred, or while trying to decide what to do. Very self indulgent, but I enjoy it, and it doesn't hurt anyone. This year, for 2025, I've chosen the word 'self-compassion,' which feels a little cheat-y, but hey, I'm the one who gets to make up the rules.

This has influenced a lot of the 'goals' I've set out for myself, which aren't really proper goals in terms of being specific, measurable, and so forth- I find that that tends to stress me out. Instead, I find it a bit nicer to have a list of things I would generally like to focus more on in my life, in a more unstructured fashion. I do have a few more concrete goals, though!

I would like to write my novel's first draft by hand this year- given my writing pace, I think this is a pretty possible timeline. It's part of wanting to slow down some when it comes to my digital experience, and also ties into some more general desires I have for this year, like: emptying at least a bottle of ink for every new one that I purchase.

I splurged a little this holiday season and bought enough ink that I should really be good for years and years- fountain pens are a very economical, and ergonomic, choice for me given the volume of writing by hand I do, and I would like to keep my collection at a reasonable size. At the moment, all of my ink fits into a metal decorative tin, and I've tested the colours I purchased by using gel pens for a few years in them to see if I could justify the purchase in terms of sticking to the colors- and happily, that's been passed with flying colors, so I anticipate being able to crack into them when the post arrives.

That of course, ties into wanting to use my fountain pens more often- and rotate through the little collection I have, as some pens see less use- though they all have their own unique writing experience to offer, and various pros/cons depending on the situation I'm using them in. Typically, I use my Lamy Safaris with their extra-fine nibs. I like a clean, consistent, thin line, and a robust pen body with a clip and ink viewing window when out and about- plus the convertor makes it very easy to swivel up some from one of the smaller bottles of Diamine ink I'll bring along with me if I run out mid-writing session.

I've also recently decided I'd like to return to keeping a daily diary- I have quite extensive memory loss, and while it was something of a mixed blessing for 2024, given how terrible it was- it is a little disconcerting to realize entire chunks of time are completely missing, (multiple months in a row) gone beyond any sort of possible retrieval. It sort of makes you feel a bit like a stranger in your own life, as if you woke up without the faintest recollection of how you woke up in this body, in these circumstances. Terribly disorientating.

A brief (or not so brief, I do tend to babble) daily check in should help. There's also something to be said about making the commitment to show up, square away about fifteen or thirty minutes to yourself, and just chat- as if to a friend. Building trust in your ability to follow through with what you said you would, creating a tangible record of your thoughts, improving your self tolerance for spending quiet alone time with yourself, composing a comforting object that requires no batteries and never runs out of energy: all of those are great reasons to commit to a diary for me, even before the general health benefits journalling offers.

I've long written diaries- since I was about thirteen, on and off throughout the years- though the framing of mind when sitting down to entries is important. I've tried using them as a means to vent, (it led to rumination and quite a lot of tears), as a means for only positive or neutral things (I wound up struggling too much to keep up with this, especially as my health worsened, and the eventual shame and guilt drove me away from it entirely, as it then became a token of my failure), a daily log of activities (quite boring, didn't really offer me much by way of substance, and so I found it difficult to maintain.)

I think while all of those have had pros and cons, or else I wouldn't have stuck with them for so long and be open to changing things up now, I'd like to approach it more similarly to how I used to maintain prayer: a daily devotion and quiet breathing space in the chaotic maelstrom that life can be, a pause for contemplation, and to see how I'm really holding up. A bit like chatting to a friend- after all, you're the one person you've got who you're absolutely stuck with to the end: we all die alone. Might as well improve that relationship with yourself, you know?

Some of the more general goals, or things I'd just like to generally focus on, revolve around the theme of the year for me: self compassion. I'd like to do more of what brings me joy and pleasure, and to cultivate happiness as a deliberate act in my life- or at least to give myself a gentle place be in, if things are difficult, and happiness seems hopelessly out of reach. These are all jotted down on my site: enjoying good music, painting more, spending time with loved ones- and most broadly of all: be kinder to myself, and treat myself as I'd treat those that I love.

One of the lessons by which I try to live my life is an adage from my papa- 'you should treat the people you love, like you love them.' Its so simple, and yet so powerfully true. I know it, I live by it- and yet I never really extend that same sort of easily welling forth compassion and tender admiration and gentle love that the people nearest and dearest to my heart are blanketed up in, to myself. I love you is such a common refrain in our conversations- so is sleep well, get home safe, make sure that you eat well. But it does pain them to see- and I know that they hurt, when I'm hurting: that they wish they could ease that suffering. Its someplace to start, anyway- in being kind to myself, if I can't do it for myself wholeheartedly yet, than for those that I love, and their sake. Really anchoring into a sense of self compassion- forgiveness, tolerance, and the measure of grace I'm so used to holding in other situations.

So those are my hopes for 2025, let's say- to act from a place of self-compassion, and a few more concrete items on that list as well: a daily diary, (no stipulation on content or length, beyond sitting down for a chat and check in with myself), and a first draft of a novel (no one ever said that first drafts have to be good!)

Updating my personal site is also just sort of a given- as I've enjoyed curating it, and it'll help me keep log of the other items on my list.

What are you bringing with you into 2025?

[JINSBEK]

To be honest I'm bringing a shit-ton of rage into 2025, and I'm keeping it that way. To be specific: working fully remote for a year and a half from 2021-2023 has been the worst thing that's ever happened to my health in a while. I'm in the worst shape I've ever been in in the last 6 years, and I'm PISSED. I didn't get to see or interact with people much, my brain's fucked up from being chronically online, and I didn't get to settle into a healthy routine or exercise because I was moving around so much during that time. 2024 I didn't even get to really recover because I caught COVID twice and each time caused me massive brain damage, again. (Lost most of my vision half of my hearing etc.) So now I'm pissed.

GOALS:

• Resume a regular practice of meditation
• Be active as a system again
• Lose as much freakin' weight as possible (healthily)
• PAINT
• BE ACTIVE AS A SYSTEM AGAIN (yes we're VERY ANGRY about this)
• Dance and study choreography once a day, even if it kills me
• REGAIN ALL OF MY VISION (fuck you, COVID)
• "Finish" our art mag website
• Read a shit-ton more
• Transfer basically all of our music to physical MP3 players
• Maintain our photography practice
• Karaoke or die
• Recover from COVID faster than we contract it or die

Are these pretty general? Sure. Do we have specific attainable goals in mind? Not really, because post-COVID's a bitch and it's hard to measure what we're able to do with the level of neurological and metabolic damage we have. Do I care? Fuck no. If I were discouraged one bit then I'd will myself to die like a dolphin and just not bother with a life of progressive deterioration and decreasing function. I guess our one "measurable" specific goal is to live to 33. I'm& gonna be 30 this year.

[solbeth]

i have a couple, but they are specific enough:

• - apply for housing waiting list with my darling so we can move in together
• do light stretching every day
• exercise twice a week (i already planned how)
• get my kitchen into working condition
• finish writing the groundwork for my neocities
• write a blog post at least once-twice a week
• get into sewing and embroidering patches!!

these mostly focus on my creativity and wellbeing. i'm gonna try to be nice to myself and won't make promises i can't keep.

[petrichoran]

i don't want to call it a resolution, really, because that kind of mentality makes me go into black and white thinking pretty quick and all or nothing isn't really a great way to accomplish a goal. but this year, i want to prioritize my health and fun. i want to work on improving my mental and physical health, both of which haven't been perfect this year to say the least. i want to make more time to do things like clean my room but also to do things i enjoy and work on personal projects. tonight i've been spending some time just on here and some other corners of the 'net and it's made me feel really happy and like myself!

[Kallistero]

Performing a little necromancy on this thread- but I thought it would be nice to check in and see what the pulse is like with other people's resolutions, as we're barely stumbling into the New Year.

Something I've especially taken to is choosing a word to contemplate throughout the year- that serves as an underpinning theme, if you will. It's sort of a operational North Star, a guiding light and compass- a touchstone to return to when reflecting on the events that've occurred, or while trying to decide what to do. Very self indulgent, but I enjoy it, and it doesn't hurt anyone. This year, for 2025, I've chosen the word 'self-compassion,' which feels a little cheat-y, but hey, I'm the one who gets to make up the rules.

By the end of this second paragraph, I already knew you were a writer.    That quality shines in your message before you even mention it. Like you, I also began keeping a daily diary not long ago, and I've already decided that maintaining a daily return to it can feel like a bit of an obligation. It can become less like a daily ritual to sit in the same seat next to the same person on the bus every day and more like someone pestering you to talk to them today just because you haven't.

Sometimes, you just want to be there, quietly, maybe enjoy each other's company or be in your own worlds, maybe you nudge each other a little, and that can be your entire interaction for the day. That might be a diary equivalent to, one day, instead of writing something, just going to today's date and then taping a candy wrapper onto the page with no context, no explanation. That's how people interact sometimes, by not fearing the silence, even bonding through it, and letting silent mysteries be. Skipping a day can be okay, and that's why I skipped yesterday 

Dance and study choreography once a day, even if it kills me

I feel similarly about daily obligations, like the above. But with this, I feel like it would be easier to systematize since it doesn't have the same pressure to bring in something new every day. Dancing in itself can be a cool way to    BE ACTIVE AS A SYSTEM AGAIN    and to lose weight 

apply for housing waiting list with my darling so we can move in together

Congratulations 

i don't want to call it a resolution, really, because that kind of mentality makes me go into black and white thinking pretty quick and all or nothing isn't really a great way to accomplish a goal

That's what my "resolution" is like! I didn't plan for it at all; it's just sort of things that are happening because of the end of the year.

I ran out of work assignments but have a healthy nest egg, so now, I'm making things for myself on my own in a freeform fashion. After collecting a bunch of my ideas into one place (via a new personal site) and looking for ways other people have done them, I found that I have workable solutions for a lot of un-addressed problems a bunch of other people must have, too. That means I can provide these as services for others to use, and it would come from someone with our mindset, someone who's empathetic to people's privacy, attention, and appreciation for a creative Web space.

I have a lot of learning to do toward making these projects the best that they can be to develop and to actually use, and that's where I am right now. I'm doing lots of reading, making experiments, stretching limits, and I'll be building a little portfolio of mini-projects before I move back to making the good stuff under this name. It's not a set-in-stone black-and-white prescription for what I have to do (it was unplanned, after all!  ), but it's become my lifestyle on its own, in a way where I only see it speeding up for the foreseeable future.

It's not a "New Year's resolution," but it is a definite change in my life & my direction. I think a lot of people want that out of their resolutions, but I've gone ahead & skipped the ritual of declaring a resolution and just gone straight to acting on the change I want to make 

[Nova]

Unintentionally, building my own website ended up becoming this, literally 5 days before New Year's Day. 

But besides that, this is something I've told myself and discussed with my mom, but I'm gonna finally get myself a high school equivalent diploma, a GED basically. Not sure where to go after that but if I feel confident enough I might start applying for courses at my local community college.

We're taking it one step at a time though and starting with just the GED part, we're gonna see if I can sign up for classes during the summer since that's when I best operate mentally.

[Paprika]

I don't have resolutions but I decided to make personal goals. Small ones and medium ones to not end up overwhelmed and feeling bad because I haven't done something totally crazy that I thought I'd do. Since I'm about to get a second doll, most of my goals are concerning her, the rest is simple things like seat outside in a park on a sunny day and read comic-books for an entire afternoon without touching my smartphone or making an outdoor photoshoot with Paprika, stuff like this.

I've done bigger bucket list before but it usually depressed me at the end of the year and more or less hated myself with thinking like "look at what Y person has done this year ! What have you done like this ? Nothing !".

So for once, i've toned down my goals and make something that I can manage. I'll probably post again on December 31 to see if I did at least a part of what I wanted 

[Capybara]

Lose weight, focus more on improving art and original content, and not go too insane. Also car related stuff since my family's car aint doing too hot.

[Spots]

My resolution for this year is to leave big tech and centralized platforms behind as much as possible. I've been trying to use alt video platforms instead of YouTube and now I'm making an effort to move my online social life to forums and decentralized IM protocols like IRC instead of Discord.