the 366 meme, part eighteen: April 29-May 5

[castiron]

Apr 29: How have your goals changed as you've gotten older? They've become much less ambitious. I'm less optimistic (or more realistic, depending on how you want to view it) about my abilities.

Apr 30: What’s a nice thing you did for somebody today? I played hide-and-seek with one of my kids.

May 1: Who made you feel good this week? A bunch of people on Ravelry.

May 2: Have you ever seen the same movie more than twice at a theater? Yep. I saw Return of the Jedi in the theater four times, and more recently I saw Wonder Woman three.

May 3: Do you still have toys, clothes, or schoolwork from when you were very young? I have White Dog, the stuffed toy I got for Valentine's Day when I was six.

May 4: Who is your favorite Star Wars character? Leia. Always.

May 5: Do you tend to be more optimistic or pessimistic? Pessimistic. I hope for the better outcome but expect that something's going to go wrong or that it's not going to be as good as I'd hoped. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I think goal setting is an interesting one. We're much more likely to achieve our goals if they are realistic, but at the same time they're not really goals if they don't require us to reach out a bit, with the possibility we won't always achieve them. It's like me saying I'll do something every day next week (very unrealistic), or three days next week (more or less normal practice) and settling on five days next week (realistic with some effort).

[castiron]

The one place I'm finding myself regularly setting goals is in a monthly craft goals thread in one Ravelry group. That's working well for several reasons:

1. I've been knitting & crocheting for so long that I know what's easily doable and what's a stretch. I'm able to set goals that are possible but take some effort.
2. I'm not fussed if I don't meet the goals. If I don't work on an afghan this month, no one dies or starves or loses their home.
3. I know I *can* make time to knit. I don't dare set goals for writing, because there are weeks when I can't get enough alone time to write 100 words, or when my brain doesn't cooperate. But knitting? As long as my hands are functioning, I can knit a row or two. I might not do all the crafts I'd planned, but I can do *some*.

Before the pandemic, the theater where I took an improv class had an improv jam the same evening as my class, and the jam was another place where goal-setting worked well. My goal: get on the stage once. Challenging, because these were people I didn't know and who had more experience with improv than me and it was easy for me to freeze and shut down, but doable; I didn't have to be any good, I just had to get up and say something. Sadly, that's shut down for now, so I haven't been able to step up my goal.

[smallhobbit]

I like the idea of setting craft goals and certainly with knitting and crotchet they're easy to pick up and do a few rows. And, as you say, if you don't then it's no major concern. I find having goals like that is sufficient to just nag myself into doing a little most days, rather than finding a week and then two has gone past. Plus there's the satisfaction of seeing something grow.