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Rethinking Resolutions
Nov. 9th, 2014 08:44 amMy only comment on the season finale of Doctor Who: I enjoyed it, but I also admit that it is extremely problematic internally, racially, and logically and all of that has to be handwaved in order to enjoy it. Expecting "Permission to squee!" to be the new wibbly-wobbly quote; anyone who made lanyards/t-shirts/iron-ons with that quote could make a mint selling it across fandoms.
Okay. Resolutions. I'm hardly giving them up - over the years they've served me well - but I'm initiating one of the changes I talked about in the last resolution post.
As you know, last year I tried to treat resolutions as agile software development sprints, with extremely poor results. I'm trying again, with a different angle and a whole lot of pollyana positive thinking.
As before, each thing I want to accomplish is getting a page in my calendar so I can track what I have done/need to do. However, rather than labeling it "Resolution x" I'm retitling them "By [time frame] I wish to have X." Less a goal than an agile "user story" ("As a user of software x, I want to be able to y.")
I feel like 5 kinds of dork admitting that, but the point is to try to focus on the outcome and why I want to have it in my life rather than the work to get there. This has two advantages: keeping my eyes on the prize and allowing for creative problem solutions.
For instance: the previous post had the line " all knitting needs to be potholders for the Kitchen Guild."
The reframe is "By fall of 2015, I wish to have used up all the Sublime cotton yard making items for the Kitchen Guild." Concrete goal 1: to use up an underused and now little-wanted yarn. Concrete goal 2: to create useful items for the Kitchen Guild.
With the reframe, the path to those goals opens up wide. I was already looking up nice, thick knitting stitches to try. But I'm no longer limited to knitting: I've got a table loom in the basement; there's nothing stopping me from doing a bit of weaving with that yarn. Also, because I'm knitting double-stranded, why not consider this the perfect project to learn basic yarn-plying on? After all, if I screw up, this is going to be used for open hearth cooking; beauty is not the main desire here. All these interesting options for learning and stretching... and still in service of two specific goals: to use up a certain yarn and to create a certain item.
Y'all will doubtless hear of how it goes.
Okay. Resolutions. I'm hardly giving them up - over the years they've served me well - but I'm initiating one of the changes I talked about in the last resolution post.
As you know, last year I tried to treat resolutions as agile software development sprints, with extremely poor results. I'm trying again, with a different angle and a whole lot of pollyana positive thinking.
As before, each thing I want to accomplish is getting a page in my calendar so I can track what I have done/need to do. However, rather than labeling it "Resolution x" I'm retitling them "By [time frame] I wish to have X." Less a goal than an agile "user story" ("As a user of software x, I want to be able to y.")
I feel like 5 kinds of dork admitting that, but the point is to try to focus on the outcome and why I want to have it in my life rather than the work to get there. This has two advantages: keeping my eyes on the prize and allowing for creative problem solutions.
For instance: the previous post had the line " all knitting needs to be potholders for the Kitchen Guild."
The reframe is "By fall of 2015, I wish to have used up all the Sublime cotton yard making items for the Kitchen Guild." Concrete goal 1: to use up an underused and now little-wanted yarn. Concrete goal 2: to create useful items for the Kitchen Guild.
With the reframe, the path to those goals opens up wide. I was already looking up nice, thick knitting stitches to try. But I'm no longer limited to knitting: I've got a table loom in the basement; there's nothing stopping me from doing a bit of weaving with that yarn. Also, because I'm knitting double-stranded, why not consider this the perfect project to learn basic yarn-plying on? After all, if I screw up, this is going to be used for open hearth cooking; beauty is not the main desire here. All these interesting options for learning and stretching... and still in service of two specific goals: to use up a certain yarn and to create a certain item.
Y'all will doubtless hear of how it goes.
