A new year is looming, and I, being the planner that I am, have already plotted my year ahead, at least the COVID-proof plans. One of my goals, just for January, is to do a blog post every morning, and an Instagram post each evening. But after an inspiring walk yesterday, why wait? Why not start now? It doesn’t have the clean slate approach of a fresh calendar page, but then again, my planner, the Wonderland 222 started in November, so I moved out of my 2020 Rhodia Goalbook early (because moving out of 2020 early is what we all want.) So, why not start the daily blog post early as well?

I have some pretty BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) this year. So starting early is a good thing. The biggest, scariest, maybe not even doable goal is to spend 2,021 hours in 2021 creating. That works out to 5.5 hours a day for the whole year. That is a scary number, it makes creating a part time job. And I have a day job that is usually 8 hours a day. So, my planner is going to be my sidekick each morning as I try to fit those 5.5 hours in somehow each day. (on the plus side, I will have weekends to catch up/get ahead).

So, 2,021 hours creating. What constitutes creating? Glad you asked. Here is my list of things that “count”:

Writing (Anything: morning pages, blog posts, poetry, stories, novels, essays.)

Photography (taking photos, editing, posting in Instagram – BUT NOT SCROLLING INSTAGRAM)

Drawing, coloring, painting.

Reading but only specific reading:

Ray Bradbury’s advice for writers is 1 Short Story, 1 Essay and 1 Poem each day. And write a story each week, with the logic being, you can’t write 52 bad stories. Challenge accepted.

The DiYMFA group is having a reading challenge that involves writing reflections about a book being read. I will count that in January.

I am not counting music, as I am not actively playing oboe at the moment, but maybe reed making, should I need to fill some hours.

BHAG. 2,021 hours creating is about as audacious as it gets. But hey,

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.