Resolution posts, amiright?
One of my favorite YouTubers is CGP Grey, and his most recent video is on resolutions, why they always fail, and how to do it better.
Grey proposes using broad, directional themes to guide behavior change, rather than setting a fixed-time + fixed-scope goal (i.e. lose 10 pounds in a year). Themes allow for unpredictability, for recalibration, and for small gestures as well as grand ones.
I’m into it. So I’ve decided 2020 will be my Year of Competence.
What do I mean by that? It doesn’t sound very glamorous. But it’s what I need this year.
This year, I will believe in the skills I already have. I will believe people when they admire those skills. I will remember that having a skill is not the same as executing the skill and that some days, execution will be easier than others, but the days that it’s hard do not mean I have lost the skill, or that I never had it. I will remember that skills must be practiced.
This year I will learn new skills. I will build on the skills I have, I will try new things, I will push myself one foothold higher on the rock wall and hang there until I’m sure I won’t fall; and then I will do it again.
This year, I will remember that skill is not everything. That beauty doesn’t have to be perfect. That something can be called “beautiful” by different people for different reasons, and that even if I see something that falls below my expectations, I can try to see it through someone else’s eyes.
This year I will remember that my art is storytelling and I am very good at it, even if I’m currently better at painting with words than paint.
This year I will believe in my competence, increase my competence, and assert my competence.
Happy 2020.