Monday, January 29, 2007

No goals, an update

The first part of my no goal week went really well. It was remarkably refreshing to be able to do what I wanted, and not what I thought I should do. Then I had a meltdown over the weekend. (see last post.)

I'm wondering if maybe something about the weekend triggered it, having less structure or something. So I'm going to try to bring some structure to my weekends. I'll do my morning pages at least one day (both if I already took a day off in the week). I'll walk in the woods with Chloe at least once. I'll do yoga and/or meditate on at least one of the days. But these are not goals, just suggestions. :)

I'm going to get organized as to how I'm doing with my MFA reading, but I think I'm keeping up. If so, then this no goal thing may just work... It's not like I'm allowing myself not to do anything (god forbid!). It's more that I'm not bumming on myself if I don't get everything done that I wanted because, after all, I didn't have a concrete goal that I failed to meet.

Last night was a good example of how no goals helped: I was knitting the beginning of a really cool purse. I wanted very badly to finish the base. But I was also getting frustrated with it, and knew that putting it down and doing something else would help. So I did. I didn't worry about my internal goal. I just let the knitting go, and read a really great story and felt much more satisfied. Best Blogger Tips

3 comments:

TI said...

That is a very cool purse. I'm glad no goals is going well for you.

Anonymous said...

I use the weekends to recharge by trying to avoid any work or writing-related activities. I think that's similar to your "no goal" approach. It feels refreshing.

Repeater said...

I love how you are making suggestions to yourself during your non-structured time! I also had a break-down (yesterday) I'm not sure I'm over it yet, though.