On setting goals and keeping ourselves accountable.
Two simple questions to ask yourself to set the year in motion.
illustration: Emeline Brulé
It’s easy to let time fly by. In our monthly meetups, we support and hold each other accountable to our creative goals. Leveraging the power of the community is essential and we have few tools we’d like to share to help you kickstart the year on the right gear and be really intentional about your goals and how you can cultivate them simply in a realistic way. Whether your dreams are big or small, it is all about how you define creative success, and then set a plan of action to make it happen.
This January, we wanted to take a minute to set those intentions by answering two simple questions:
1. What would creative success look like for 2024?
A few prompts in case you are blanking:
think about outcomes you’d like to see (you can think about artists or peers you admire for inspiration)
think about how you want to feel at the end of the year
think about tangible products of your creative practice (could be objects, monetary, quantifiable results)
2. “I’m not doing goals, I’m doing conditions”: what conditions do you need to achieve your goals?
Prompts for the more pragmatic of us who need to think this through.
think about the current blockers to your creative practice
brainstorm ways they could be solved (i.e. blocking time on your calendar, creating incentives, signing up for a class, etc.)
How much time would you like to invest (daily, weekly or monthly)
How can you leverage your community (for help, feedback accountability)
Will you share your work and how?
pick your top 3 actions that you can implement on a regular basis
create a ritual with the same regularity to reflect.
The simple action of reflecting and writing some ideas down will make a difference in how you approach this year. The more often you can go back to your notes, look at your objectives and learn from them, the more likely you will reach them. The truth is, like any resolutions you can do this anytime and you can also review and edit your goals based on your learnings and life changes,
Additionally, We highly encourage you to find an accountability partner, and check on each other on a regular basis with a lot of kindness and trust. If you are struggling to find someone, drop us a note, introducing yourself and what you are looking to accomplish and we will do our best to put you in touch with someone.
These key questions were inspired by the Artist in Residency in Motherhood and their Residency Kit, a more comprehensive way to create structure and accountability for your practice which include some of the following:
What do you need that you don't currently have?
Time? Space? Curiosity? Inspiration? Community? Solitude? New experiences? A mentor? Accountability? Sleep? Specific training or materials? Assistance? Childcare? Direction? Visibility? etc. Write initial thoughts in the box below then edit to make a prioritized list
Creative ways to make this work:
Could you use space in your home differently, or use other public spaces to work in? How could you change your routine or eliminate tasks to create more time? Could you appoint a friend or colleague as an accountability tracker, or mentor? Could you trade with friends for childcare or materials, or collaborate with others to make those things more accessible? Could you change the way you work to make it more productive given your current situation?
With that, best wishes for 2024!