Celebrating Long-term Goals

I've been reading Big Time, the latest book from my very favorite "productivity expert," Laura Vanderkam. It's a great read, and one of her suggestions for savoring and expanding one's experience of time is to set long-term goals that feel rewarding, take minimal effort each day, and build toward something big and celebratory. As I read about this strategy and felt energized about goals I could set for 2027, it occurred to me that I was already doing this with my year-long habit tracker. Still, it hadn't paused to complete my explanation by describing the celebration step! 

Maybe you can relate to my trouble here - I focus on the hard work and "how good it is for me," but I forget about the celebration that could cap off the whole experience and leave me feeling rewarded and delighted. So let's right that wrong and set aside time to celebrate!

This year, I am taking time to log each time I engage in one of the fourteen habits I decided to focus on. These are activities that generally leave me feeling happy with my day, such as working out, yoga, and journaling. Each time I engage in one of these activities, I add a square of the corresponding color to my tracker. 

But wait, there's more! Not only do I get to celebrate the habits I engage with each day with my special box of crayons, but I also decided to indulge in a special knitting project to celebrate this year. I'm making a Celebration Scarf! 

I'm only a quarter of the way through, and it's already a fun, funky celebration of my year of great habits. Each habit has its own yarn associated with it, and I use my habit tracker to determine the color repeats - so the scarf pattern follows my habit patterns!

I was thinking of my Celebration Scarf as a continuation of the habit-tracking project, but with Laura Vanderkam's help, I'm reframing it: my scarf is a cumulative celebration of all the beautiful habits I am focusing on this year!

What's a big project or big goal that you're working on that deserves a little (or big) celebration? Would planning a celebration boost your motivation and commitment to that goal? 

Checking in on Foundations

This year I took on a goal to lean into and enjoy foundational practices that I know make me happy.  I did some deep thinking about this because I really (really) didn't want these happy practices to become a checklist of drudgery. I know I have a tendency for the means to become the end, and in this case I wanted to stay focused on the fun - the tracking of the fun was just meant to focus and celebrate all the wonderful stuff I was doing! You can read about my decision to habit track here.

We're halfway through the year, and I wanted to report on my progress. I have a very colorful tracker, which is a lovely, tangible reminder of my very colorful life! 

It's been really interesting to see the ebbs and flows of my habits, when I lean into one type of activity and when I do more of another. My average week sees 30 distinct activities, which is super-cool data. It tells me that I'm living out my priorities in the ways I hoped and intended at the start of the year. 

It's interesting to see patterns and anomalies in my activities, such as the very un-fun week of March 8 when I had ACL surgery and basically took the week off from life. 

It's been really fun to see my habits play out on the page, and I've enjoyed this subtle nudge to do more of what I love each day. I'm planning to make a fun knitting project to celebrate all of this lovely fun played out in color, so I'll keep you posted on that! 

Overall, I am happy with this habit tracking and decided after consideration in early July to keep going through the rest of the year. I like the daily celebration of doing things I love, I like the gentle nudge to do more of it, and I like using crayons. 

What about you? As we hit the mid-point of the year, it's a wonderful time to look back and take stock of the year so far. What are you pleased with? What do you want to double down on? Anything you want to let go of? Clean starts don't have to wait for January; they're available any time!

Another Comparison Trap - Not Comparing Like to Like

A few weeks ago, my family took a trip to Vernal, Utah, to enjoy some Whitewater rafting and try out the Ashley Gorge Via Ferrata. The rock climbing portion of this adventure was a stretch for me - I spent the entire experience sweating, panting, shaking, and gauging when my courage would be totally depleted and if that point would be before I was actually off the wall. The astute observer may notice subtle differences between these two photos:

Jamie: hugging the blue square (intermediate) route wall. Having a great time, also terrified.

Jamie's children: scrambling up the black-diamond (advanced) routes, without fear or apparent fatigue.

I had a great time on our adventure and was very proud of my performance (not dying, falling, or collapsing). Yet there was also a part of me that felt wildly inferior to my children. And that comparison could threaten to dull my joy and victory at a very brave personal best.

This is an apt followup to my last post, also about comparison, and this one is inspired both by my children and by my friend Dr. Angela Trego's book, Squashing the Imposter Syndrome: when we compare, be careful to compare like-to-like. 

For example, if I start a new job and feel like a useless idiot because I don't know how to do a quarter of the things my coworker does, I have to ask myself, "Yes, and how are our experiences different? Am I comparing me after 2 weeks on the job with her after 2 months? Do I know how she was feeling at 2 weeks? Is my point of comparison actually accurate?" And, usually, it's not accurate. Usually we compare our gap to someone else's mastery. 

So when I am tempted to feel like a loser because my children are scrambling around like happy monkeys hundreds of feet above the canyon floor and I am clinging to my little handle trying not to hyperventilate, I would be wise to remember the differences in our experiences: 

I am twice their age, do not train to climb, have a healthier innate trepidation towards heights, and am recovering from major knee surgery. They are in their physical prime, actually train climbing, and haven't had a part of their body replaced this year.  None of that takes away from the beauty of their mastery - they are AWESOME. And also recognizing the differences in our situations reminds me that I'm not them, and I'm not going to perform like them right now. 

Comparison is so tricky. Don't let it steal your joy.