RRQuilts

Are you the sort of person who makes a word of the year, or sets annual goals?

I’m the sort of person who does both. The idea is that there are specific things I want to accomplish or specific areas I want to grow in. So I name those. There’s also a general feeling I want for the year – the attitude I want to use when approaching my goals. That’s what the word of the year is for me. It’s a centering idea that

 shapes the way I approach my life that year.

This year, my word of the year is “distill”. I feel like my life has become cluttered and scattered – both literally and metaphorically. I hope that using DISTILL as my centering word will help remind me to focus on what really matters most to me in any given area.

I know that we are coming up on the end of January, so I may be a little bit late in getting this out there. I’m also nervous to put goals out in the world because these goals are similar to my goals from the past 2 years, but I didn’t hardly make any work toward them the last 2 years. I am trying really hard to move the needle in a bunch of areas in my life to make it more like the life I really want to live.

Quilty Goals

1. Release 4 patterns

   I have at least 3 planned, and with one of them targeting a February release date! My first anticipated patten release in over 18 months!

2. Work with a publication

   I’ve got plans here, and hope to share more soon!

3. Send a monthly newsletter

4. Reconfigure my blog and website

   Everything auto-renews by the end of the month, so I have a fire lit under me to re-work everything! I’ll also be moving my shop to Etsy.

5. Finish my WIP it into shape project

   I’m making progress, and it goes in spurts. But I would really like to have it completely wiped out by the end of the year. That feels both huge and possible, as long as I don’t stop working on it. You can follow my progress here. This is the “master” page that gets updated links for each newly updated blog.

Personal Goals

I have a lot of personal goals for this year as well. I won’t share all of them here, but here are a few of them that you may see me mention on my blog or social media.

1. General decluttering my home. I’ve decided to try and focus on one area each month to deep clean, declutter, and organize. January is off to a good start. It was Clothes and Closets month! I put away a whole box of clothes that doesn’t fit well right now to be evaluated later. I have a few large bag of clothes to donate, and a massive bag of items that are not suitable for donation and need to be recycled. February’s focus is TBD.

   Included in this goal is some serious digital decluttering and reorganization.

2. Catch up on my family photo books. I’m 3 years behind – I do one book for each kid for each year. I should plan a retreat for myself and just tackle these!

3. Improve my running mile time. My goal is to get to a 10 minute mile. I’m currently at around 11 minutes, failrly consistently. Last summer and fall, I started running again on a pretty consistent basis for the first time in over 10 years. Over Christmas and January, Ive fallen off of that habit, and I can really feel in my body that I miss it.

4. Read more. I used to be an avid reader, but lost the habit over the years. Last year, I think I finished 3 YA chapter books. There is a lot that I want to read, and I want to get the habit back. I don’t have a numerical goal, but finishing more than 3 books would be a record for me for the past 10 + years!

5. Improve my writing. I want writing to feel easier for me, and come more naturally. Specifically, I want to be a better storyteller. At the end of last year, I started reading the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s about writing, making art, and knowing yourself. I’d like to really dive into that book sometime this year. I also hope to write more blogs. Although writing feels intimidating to me, I know that if I do it more, it will start to feel easier.

6. Do more of the stuff that I love. Just more of it without goals. More sewing, more gardening, more hikes with my kids, more calligraphy. More drawing, more watercolor painting, more botanizing. More time with my friends and extended family. More richness and less stress.

I would love to hear some of your goals this year – quilty or not!