The Unus Annus Promise
The task of planning out a full year is a very daunting task. You cannot predict what circumstances will change in the coming days. However, a sense of aimlessness will lurk if there is no goal or guideline set before you.
There are so many ideas that I have collected over the years that I wish to accomplish; it is very difficult to narrow down a goal. Tasks become overwhelming when you start to physically write the to-do list. The list grows one by one as I flip through sketchbooks, even the most recent ones. This overwhelming feeling is often discouraging, but this year I will turn the discouragement into excitement. I want to push beyond what I have done in a year's time, and commit to it, as much as I reasonably can.
Following is my own set of goals and tentative gameplan for the coming year. My Unus Annus Promise.
A limit I will be imposing is not buying any new art supplies. Nothing that's trendy. Nothing that I might like to have. I have been doing well to curb my habit of picking up a new art supply simply because I would like to try it. Not this year. I will only buy anything that is absolutely essential similar to stretcher bars for my canvas, or to replace essential paint colors.
For this year, my encompassing themes are expanding my network, adding to my catalogue of completed works, and improving my habits.
The format I will be going about this will consist of short and long-term goals. I have the goals that will carry out through the year, others that are for a month or two, and habits that I want to improve daily. This framework will allow me to have better focus on completing projects and ideas that have been left on the back burner by excuses like "oh, I'll pick that up another time," "I'll wait until life is more favourable"
Expanding my network will consist of:
-Attending local events
-Participating in interesting trends/events in the broader community
-Reaching out to create collaborations and/or business connections
-Creating a large scale project or final product (ie. book)
-Adding consistent content to my website (ie. Journals, research, gallery)
-Consist social media presence
In order to add to my collection of completed work, I need to designate a start and deadline for paintings and projects. Each month I will create a gameplan with a start and finish date. This is where the list has become extensive so I will pick a few to highlight:
-Bird and Skull series
-Hand-made professional oil & gesso primed stretched canvas
-Geometry series 'BluePrints'
-Accompanying video at the end of each project
Habit improvement happens on an intentional daily basis and will feed into everything else I have mentioned. Creating time to allow my mind and body to be at its best requires conscious choices to do or not do something.
-Practice mindfulness
-Create a beneficial home environment and simplify (messy space = messy mind)
-Targeted physical exercise (ie yoga, muscle building. I run around enough at work)
-Recording thoughts and dreams daily.
-Create time to create
-Don't stress about things that don't affect your real career
-Have fun
I have realized over the last year that I work best with organized spaces so that supplies are easy to find or reference and things don't get lost or forgotten. I had previously worked relatively well with a messy space, especially during my university years, but I have now found that projects and supplies often get forgotten now that the majority of my time is spent in a completely separate environment. Goal-oriented and deadline motivated both describe my personal process, but I need to remember to enjoy the process as well. This requires introspection about how I work and what methods are most natural to myself.
I find it most beneficial to have an idea or concept of where I want to be in life and create steps to follow toward it, but also acknowledge that things will happen and circumstances will change. I will need to remember to go with the flow and use my essential values to guide me through it. I may end up somewhere completely different than I had anticipated, but if I enjoy where I am and what I'm doing, then I am doing it right.
I did debate which style of long term planning was most fitting - a rigorous outline or open-ended. I settled on a mix of both. I am naturally a spontaneous person, but I often feel lost if there is no functional compass. The year-long and daily goals are set, but the month to month projects I will leave open and have a pool of ideas to pull from to keep things dynamic and interesting.
Working retail in the Christmas season, I find it especially important to keep focus on the things that truly matter. Life is normally stressful during this time of year, and we all have been presented with new stress and limitations this year. Adaptation and fluidity will be essential traits in these unpredictable times.
And patience.
Loads of patience.