2020 Goals: An Easy Way To Make This The Best Year Ever
I posted yesterday about a great goal-setting tool that I’ve used the previous two years in lieu of New Year’s Resolutions. Rather than setting some goal that will be forgotten or abandoned within a few months, this is a fun way to set some overall goals.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Make this a judgement-free exercise! This isn’t about berating yourself for not achieving a goal, or for getting off track during the year. It’s about the process, about the journey, not the destination. If you have a goal from 2019 you haven’t achieved yet, go ahead and roll it forward to 2020. And, if at the end of this year, there are goals in this that weren’t fulfilled, that’s OK! It’s the process that matters most.
I did my rolls, and got the following:
7, 10, 8, 16, 10, 6
Using the table in the previous post, it resulted in the following modifiers:
-2, 0, -1, +3, 0, -2
(I started making a video of this, but decided that it wasn’t terribly interesting and would take a while to make, and I’ve got client projects to work on…so I ultimately decided not to finish it.)
Remember, a positive number means adding that number of goals or starting new things to a stat, a negative number means stopping that many things or getting rid of something, and a zero means carry on from last year.
This is where everything ended up:
STRENGTH: -1
DEXTERITY: 0
CONSTITUTION: 0
INTELLIGENCE: +3
WISDOM: +2
CHARISMA: +1
As you can see, I fudged a couple of rolls, and that’s perfectly OK. The whole exercise is one of examining different areas of your life and thinking about where you would like to be in 12 months. You needn’t be beholden to the dice. (PRO TIP: every Dungeon Master has fudged a roll behind the screen at least once.)
In this case, I changed the -1 to a +1, as there were things I wanted to start doing on the social goals side of things. I also changed the -2 to a +2, because there were different skills I wanted to learn in 2020.
So, the goals in each category:
STRENGTH (Social Justice Goals): I opted to focus on to stop feeling bad about myself for not doing enough to right social wrongs. Rather than beat myself up about not having the time to volunteer, or in being able to end racism or anti-LGBTQ bigotry, I’m going to focus on the things that I am doing, no matter how small.
DEXTERITY (Physical Goals): I’m doing pretty well here. I lost over 10 pounds, when my schedule allows I’m going to jiu jitsu as often as possible, my bloodwork comes back good every year, so I guess just keep on keepin’ on.
CONSTITUTION (Mental Health Goals): I am worlds better now than I was this time last year. I started therapy again with a new therapist who’s been enormously helpful, I started ADD meds which have created an unbelievable change in terms of my happiness, and I started getting a better perspective on things toward the end of the summer. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It seems like these things are working, so no change from last year.
INTELLIGENCE (Creative Goals): I love making things, so this has the most number of goals/starts. I want to write and produce an audio drama this year, I’m going to re-do the Team X opening sequence, and for the third…I don’t know yet. There will be a third, I just need some time to think on it and figure out what would bring me the most joy to do.
WISDOM (Knowledge Goals): I really want to learn OpenToonz this year. I’ve been getting braver in my drawing, and I always like stretching my production skills. I’m also going to complete my first full round of voice over coaching in the areas I want to focus on: commercial, audiobook, and video games/animation.
CHARISMA (Social Goals): I want to start a local voice actor group here in Philly for networking and for fun.
That’s where I’ve fallen this year.
I’m going to keep the sheet handy on my desk as a little reminder each day so that I have some guideposts. I don’t have to work on these things every day. It’s just nice to have a little nudge from the past to remind me that yeah, there are things that I’d like to do.