Who is setting goals for the New Year?

[sharonb]

I always use this time of year for a bit of a personal review and and look back on what I have achieved this year and look forward as to where I want to orientate my energy. I am in the process of setting of setting personal and stitching  goals for next year. 

My list is not clearly formulated yet, as  when I set goals I think about how I am going to achieve them and what resources I need but I do know the Stitch file worksheets will be a priority activity and the current crazy quilt (the lace quilt) will be on my list.

Working in the studio journal will be on the list and I think I am going to name a certain number of hours to work in it as I have fallen into bad habits this past year. There are some big shifts happening which I am still thinking about and will take a good month to consider.

Anyway who else is setting goals and deciding where to focus their time and energy? 

How do you set them just list them? Do you consider how you are going to achieve them - or just overload and hope for the best. (This list and overload is one way of not meeting goals) 

Do you list, prioritise and choose realistic goals?

Do you list, break them up into smaller achievable chunks?

Can you throw away the list and change quickly if need be?

Do you wish you were more goal orientated?   

Do you think about it in January and then let it slide? 

Just curious ....

I am sure others are too 

[Lorelei Halley]

I don't particularly think in terms of "new year's resolutions" or goal setting, exactly. But there is something operating in my thinking about goals. I'm 67 and very aware that a brick wall lies across my road somewhere up ahead. It isn't sad or depressing but a profound and urgent stimulus. I want to execute every single design I've come up with before I get to that brick wall. This in itself is not possible because they are so many. So I at least want to work examples of the best ones in each of the genres I work in: pulled thread, Hardanger, needle lace and bobbin lace.

I also want to get them all set up as patterns I can offer over the internet. So that means writing them up and copyrighting them in batches. So posting them for sale and posting them on my website is a very powerful goad to finishing the pieces I start. Having any kind of response to my pieces is a strong positive reinforcement to make more and do more. I used to (35 and 40 years ago) have several projects in process which never seemed to reach completion. With the internet, photo sharing sites, and my website, all those ufos have become fos -- finished objects.

One goal that is constantly running around my mind is how to make my designs as close to artistic as I can get them. And this group has been valuable beyond words in pushing me in that direction and improving my designs. I check the new photos nearly every day and get ideas. For so many years I worked alone with no real feedback. Most bobbin lacemakers are not designers. And even in that category the internet has shown me what other people are doing around the world, and it is absolutely amazing.

The only kind of goal setting which is unpleasant has to do with housework--always the loser.

[Barbara/Hopscotch]

Cheryl,
I read your reply and something clicked with me. Maybe one of the reasons I start multiple pieces simultaneously, is that when I get stuck on a certain element I can change horses, so to speak and continue creating on something else. Occasionally, it feels that way but most of the time the ideas for another piece come to me when I've already started something else!
I break off to initiate this new idea because it's my way of recording what I would like to do next, instead of jotting it down in a book. I tried that and found crammed pages full of scraps of fabric used tickets and experiments. The ground fabric being 'started off', seems to be a better 'hatchery' for further ideas I don't why but it does?
Barbara

Cheryl Greenstreet said:

Perhaps saying that I am aware of patterns and then analyze them would be better wording. An example might be, I find that I am straightening and cleaning a lot one week (a pattern). Perhaps the clutter was getting in the way of progress. Did the cleaning need to be done or was I procrastinating. Then why was I procrastinating. Was I stuck on some aspect of the design or.... If I wasn't in the studio much that week (a pattern) what prevented it - necessary appointments or family issues or.....

I haven't done this much in the past so want to make it a priority - a goal - for the future. I want to be more aware of what I am doing, or not doing and why, so I can change those areas that need changing and hopefully get more accomplished in the end.

Cheryl

[Sharon Taverner]

Hopscotch,
Your reply above struck a chord with me. I often have several ideas fighting in my head at once but they often get lost because I was brought up to "do one thing at a time" and "finish what you started".
I may try your method next year and see what occurs. Thanks for sharing.
Sharon T

[Raphaela]

This discussion inspired me to go with goals for the next year, at least for the first three months. After that I will see how it works for me. Usually I plan to do more than I can actually achieve. So my goals should be modest. This year I concentrated on beading and stitching but ignored crazy quilting. I would like to have some balance of all three 'fields'. I decided to try two different approaches: the "deadline approach" (for beading) and the "weekly progress approach" (for crazy quilting and embroidery).

[Annet]

This year it was the first time I set creative goals in January. I wanted to finish some WISP’s I didn’t want to call UFO’s and used my blog to write about it. In the first 4 months I finished a few of them. Then my goals changed, but I didn’t realize it until I read this discussion. I think I will use the last weeks of this year to make a list of goals and pick a few favourites for the first 1 or 2 months of 2011. My oldest WISP (started in 1981!) will be one of them. It was a birthday present and I want to finish it before my next birthday. I think I’m going to use my blog to write about my goals and review them every 2 months.

[Sibille Kreideweiss]

Yes, I agree with that. Originally I thought you were talking about charts (which we also call patterns, well, here's the designer's brain talking). I think we all procrastinate at one stage, and try to put off what's need to be done, or is more complicated, and move onto doing something less difficult or challenging instead, which can often wait.

I try to avoid this, but doesn't always happen.



Cheryl Greenstreet said:

Perhaps saying that I am aware of patterns and then analyze them would be better wording. An example might be, I find that I am straightening and cleaning a lot one week (a pattern). Perhaps the clutter was getting in the way of progress. Did the cleaning need to be done or was I procrastinating. Then why was I procrastinating. Was I stuck on some aspect of the design or.... If I wasn't in the studio much that week (a pattern) what prevented it - necessary appointments or family issues or.....

I haven't done this much in the past so want to make it a priority - a goal - for the future. I want to be more aware of what I am doing, or not doing and why, so I can change those areas that need changing and hopefully get more accomplished in the end.

Cheryl

[Sandi Hersh]

Sharon, I first want to thank you for bringing up this subject of setting goals. It is one that I avoid, and yet know that I need to take seriously. I know that there are things that I want to accomplish artistically, and until now have had a rather casual way of working toward them.  I am going to think about my goals for  2011 over the next couple of weeks, and really try to put down what I hope to accomplish this year.



I have always felt that once a goal was written down it must be set in stone, and so I stayed away from them. I know that I will need to be flexible this year, as my husband and I plan to move nearly 1800 miles, to be closer to our kids, and to available as our second grandchild is born. This is something that I need to work out, accepting that my goals may not be met because circumstances did not allow them to be met. I want my motto to be "A goal is a dream with a plan." I want to mindfully work toward my dreams. Sandi

[Jessica R]

What an interesting discussion!

 

I personally find that I have two kinds of goals for my stitching.  The first is "obligation" stitching, where I need to finish X piece for X person's birthday or whatever...I am trying to do less of this but can't get away from it entirely. 

The second is more like skills and artistic development, I suppose, and this is where I've found my bliss lately...having a vision and seeing if I can make it real in thread.  For me, this one is harder to break into chunks for defined goals, since it is so nebulous.  I've been trying to make steps toward it in 2010 by taking design classes and reading art books and building my stash so that when inspiration strikes I have the materials at hand to work something out, and starting a blog to help myself keep track of where I've been and where I'm going.  But I found this year that design challenges like here on Stitchin Fingers and elsewhere have been very helpful in focusing my effort in design and technique.  Challenges like given a theme of "bridge" or whatever, you have three months, see what you can do...those are very helpful for me.  I need to try to do more of those, either on my own or through a structured group, in 2011.

[Carol-Anne]

I've been following this discussion with interest and inevitably it set me thinking about goal setting, so much so that I found myself writing about it on my blog last night.  To keep the discussion in one place here is an extract of what I wrote.  (To give a little context, yesterday was my 4th Blogiversary and I was writing about that.)

 

"My initial thought was that I don’t set myself goals but of course this is not true, I guess we all do to some extent. I just don’t do it in a structured way.

Sharon asked "How do you set [goals] just list them?" On one forum I have joined we declare our goals for the coming month. Many of my projects take several months to complete, so I tend to simply list my current projects and their deadline if it is imminent. "Do you consider how you are going to achieve them - or just overload and hope for the best?" I think that I definitely fit into the overload and hope for the best category. I find it difficult to say no – to myself, let alone anyone else. If I see a project that interests me, I add it to my 'to do' list and hope that I will find time to fit it in. So many of these projects never get off the ground, some get started but fall by the wayside and far too many get squeezed in at the last minute and become stressful rather than a pleasure. Sharon said "This list and overload is one way of not meeting goals." Hmmm, ain't that the truth!

Looking back at the last 4 years, 2007 was probably my most productive. It was also my most goal orientated year. That was the year that I took part in TAST. My plan was to work a small sampler for each stitch within a week starting from the day it was announced. Even though my samplers were small, they were still a lot of work to complete within a week and I soon started to miss my self-imposed deadline, non-the-less the goal remained and I pushed on throughout the year.

Compare that to 2010. This year has been the least productive of the 4 years. I 'planned' to do more than I could possibly achieve. There were at least two time consuming projects that I should have said no to but could not resist taking part. During the summer my mojo went missing for weeks and I think that can be attributed to overload. I have met the some of my goals, those I had committed to doing. Some of the projects that I might have preferred to be working on are yet to be started, and I might have enjoyed the projects I have completed more if I had not felt obliged to do them.

So how do I avoid falling into the same pit falls again? Sharon said, "A dream is a dream; a goal is a dream with a plan". It would seem that before I can set goals I have to consider my dreams. That’s scary. Why am I afraid to name my dreams? Well, it’s that old chestnut of being afraid of failure. Maybe it it time to start facing up to my dreams. Maybe it is time to stop thinking about all the reasons they may be fulfilled. Maybe it is time to start making some plans and setting some goals.

Or maybe I'll wrap them back up in obstacles and prevarication and keep on overloading and hoping for the best!"

[sharonb]

Carol-Anne dont feel alone on this as that final summary fits so many people I know! Thanks for being so honest as I hope people can see its easy to make a list of goals but hard to genuinely tackle them by that I mean break them down into smaller units, plan how they are going to achieved, sort out the resources you need to do it, set aside the time to do it and then do it!    

Carol-Anne said:

 

So how do I avoid falling into the same pit falls again? Sharon said, "A dream is a dream; a goal is a dream with a plan". It would seem that before I can set goals I have to consider my dreams. That’s scary. Why am I afraid to name my dreams? Well, it’s that old chestnut of being afraid of failure. Maybe it it time to start facing up to my dreams. Maybe it is time to stop thinking about all the reasons they may be fulfilled. Maybe it is time to start making some plans and setting some goals.

Or maybe I'll wrap them back up in obstacles and prevarication and keep on overloading and hoping for the best!"

[pat winter]

I have a goal, something exciting for crazy quilter's....come Spring! :-)

[Liz in Kansas]

As always, Sharon, you have brought goal-setting into focus and my brain is beginning to wake up.  This discussion has given me a lot to think about. 

 

I have approached goal-setting several different ways.  One year I set fairly definite goals and blogged about them regularly.  I did get quite a bit accomplished that year, but some of the fun seemed to disappear.  This is, after all, my hobby.  This year, however, I took the opposite approach and set no goals at all.   A few "real life" issues got in the way of stitching, but I think my biggest handicap was this lack of goals.  I guess I need to try for somewhere in between.  Defining the dream so I can come up with a plan.  That seems to be the first step!