Peter Curtiss posted: " Photo by Jaymantri on Pexels.com It is with a little trepidation that I am approaching the idea signposts (a word I prefer to use instead of "New Year's Resolutions") for 2022. It is not merely that 2021's signposts went poorly, but I also have a snea"
It is with a little trepidation that I am approaching the idea signposts (a word I prefer to use instead of "New Year's Resolutions") for 2022. It is not merely that 2021's signposts went poorly, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that they might have been in some ways counterproductive.
In particular, I think my experience with both my reading and writing goals is worth mentioning. I got very far behind the hours/books I wanted to do, and at some point just accepted I wouldn't hit my target. Once I did that, I found myself enjoying reading and writing a lot more, and actually doing them at a pace that, had I done that all year, I would have hit my target.
The purpose of the signposts are to motivate and direct. My experience with them last year was that they might very well have been demotivating. It is perhaps the case that, in setting larger and more dramatic goals, I put too much pressure on myself. Another possibility is that the tracking of hours through a variety of spreadsheets really sucks the soul out of whatever endeavor I'm working on (as I become more focused on the spreadsheet). With that I have a working principle for this year's signposts:
Little things that are highly efficient, done consistently. Don't stress tracking hours.
Now, the best signposts are SMART: specific, measurably, actionable, relevant, and timely. With this above principle I'm going sacrificing on specificity and measurability (not tracking hours) with the hope that I make myself more motivated towards my goals, and in doing so make them more actionable. Also, by making the goals small (and efficient!) I leave myself more flexibility to adjust how I spend my time throughout the year, without having to worry if I'm going to fail my goals as a consequence (again, more actionable) while still producing large results (because little things, done consistently, can do that).
So, here are my signposts for 2022:
Weight Loss - Losing weight (usually the target of 240lbs) has, I believe, been on all of my targets for the past decade. I'm not making it one this year. Instead of trying to lose weight, I'm going to try to gain health, competitiveness (in strength training, by either getting stronger or making a smaller class), and aesthetics. These goals aren't specific, but they, along with the above principle, inform the next two, which are.
Average 8k Steps/Day - Outside of the gym, I'm relatively sedentary. Steps isn't something I paid attention to in 2021. Not always having my phone on me plays a small role, but I hit just under 2k/day average last year. Studies show that steps plays a bigger positive roll on improving all cause mortality than not being obese/being a nonsmoker. Steps is specific, but, importantly, my phone tracks it all and I don't have to do anything. It's small effort, and if I fall behind I can make it up. The reach goal is a 10k/day average.
Take Supplements Every Day- Swallowing a pill is incredibly easy, and being deficient in a vitamin or mineral can produce extremely negative outcomes. It's not sexy, but it is fairly straightforward. I don't want to have to meticulously track this, but if I don't miss a single day (from today forward) then I won't have to. For the sake of being specific let's say that 250 days is the goal, and 300 is the reach goal. I'll track days I miss (it's amusing, but I think tracking a miss is probably more effort than just taking the pills).
Meditate 500 Times - Each "time" being a 10 minute session (ie, a 20 minute session will count as two). There is an increasing amount of studies on how meditation is useful for a variety of things (touted as the "new caffeine"), and while I won't get into the research here, I think it's a good look. I also think that meditation is the cornerstone of attentional fitness.
Read/Write 5 Mins a Day - One of the hardest parts of getting things done can be as simple as just getting started, especially if you're a procrastinator (good book on procrastination here). The main point of this signpost isn't to accomplish a certain amount of work - it's to develop the habit of merely getting started, each and every day. If I only want to do five minutes, that's fine. I've already hit this every day this year, so we'll say 300 is the goal, and 350 is the reach goal (just like supplements, recording misses).
This can all be done in under 30 minutes a day (excluding the steps (which are more difficult to evaluate, as many are incidental, and you can run to get there faster). It is only after noticing this that I realized how similar these signposts are to a previous article I wrote almost exactly three years ago, 30 Minutes to Increase Quality of Life), which really had the same principle of efficiency in mind.
2021 was a pretty bad year for me. I think that this signposts, while not being as flashy as "read 100 books", really set me up for having a better year, and do so in a way that is extremely flexible and open ended. I certainly hope to do more than just this list this year, but I think just doing this gives me a good approach, foundationally, for this year.
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Just to be clear, it's not the case that I'm not trying to lose weight. I am; I'm just not making it part of my signposts, which I'm okay with, because putting weight loss on here has been demonstrably ineffectual anyways. Another note is that I set my Goodreads target at 80 books, with the hope of trying to hit 30k pages total read. (Pages read being the more important factor. I think it's a better gage, and it also lets me record studies and articles). This is not something I'll consider myself a failure for missing, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.
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