🗓️A New Year, Renewed Dreams

Transform resolutions into reality with sustainable systems

Every dream has a foundation from our lived experience.

Growing up, there were days I would hurry home excited to tell my mom and dad of the adventures my friends and I had in our make-believe world, dirt on my face, and the smell of old mossy woods clinging to my clothes. I’d regale them of the Lego structures and vehicles that blossomed into a settlement, cut off, struggling to find a way to survive deep within a prehistoric jungle while eating the peanut butter and banana sandwich they’d made me. Chugging down milk as I tell them of the bridge guarded by cyborg dinosaurs we’d constructed across a flowing brook, allies in the fight to survive. For just a moment, my friends and I were disconnected from the bustling D.C. Metropolitan, lost in a world of our own making.

Fast-forward to today, where I vibrate with anticipation to amuse my friends at our weekly gathering of the latest adventures in my role-playing games. Connecting with them about the insights I’d gleaned from the visceral scenes of my characters’ near-death escapes, epic cinematic encounters, and well-timed witticisms. They’d hang onto each word as I recounted these imagined escapades as if it were my own lived memory.

Storytelling has long been a part of who I am; in written form or spoken. Whether imagined or lived, a story well told can re-ignite a fire when it has been dwindling or create a new one that hasn’t yet been built. Without the space to tell stories, have a laugh, and share some tears, our modern world^[1] wouldn’t exist. So, as we close a chapter on the year and begin anew in the Gregorian calendar, I reflect on my love for storytelling and ways I might refine and share my own stories further.

Fun Fact: How Measurement of Time Shapes Our Reality

The Gregorian calendar, used by most around the world, was established in 1582 by Pope Gregory XII, replacing the Julian calendar to more accurately reflect Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It is considered a solar calendar in contrast to a lunisolar calendar such as the Chinese calendar, calculated with respect to the moon and sun.

In contrast to the 12 months of the Gregorian calendar, the Chinese calendar is broken up into 24 solar terms. As a result, the Chinese Lunar New Year doesn’t align with the Gregorian New Year, causing the traditions of renewal to happen at different times!

Each new year, I declare resolutions or goals, as many do. My tradition of renewal isn’t just about committing to something new but also letting go. As such, I write down the things I want to relinquish and burn them in wisps of cleansing smoke. Though my resolutions and liberating pyres have varied over the years, I’ve often struggled to hold myself accountable^[2] and hit those goals. This year, I’m exploring a new approach discovered as I reflected on why previous resolutions didn’t land

Today, I’ll guide you through my thinking and look behind the curtain at how I:

• Arrived at one of my 2024 goals and the motivations behind it

• Aim to create sustainable systems that compound into fulfilling a dream

• Plan to keep myself on the path when it’s hard to do the thing

At the end, I’ll recap with some thoughts and techniques I presented in the example that you might use to bring your own New Year’s resolution into reality!

Community keeps the individual accountable.

Manifesting Dreams into Reality

I can remember seeing those motivational posters with a massive mountain representing a challenge and a quote saying, “Don’t give up, you’re almost there!” as the person reaches their hand towards the summit. It’s a common struggle many face, and why so many iterations of solutions on how to reach our goals get sold to us.

You may have heard of Vision Boards, SMART goals, or daily journals to help set and achieve goals, and they certainly have their merits. However, I haven’t always found success with those alone and felt the need to dive into why. Why do I fail to write or stay in touch with my friends and family? As I’ve realized, it’s important to keep iterating on systems until the ease of maintenance becomes second nature.

I’ve dreamt of sustaining the practice of connecting more deeply and building the habit of writing regularly, an effort to refine my thoughts continuously. That said, writing alone can be difficult, and I know myself to be a social creature who thrives off the energy from vibrant conversations; to the point where I can go on late into the night. So, something has to change in my practices.

Now, let us break down how I intend to reach one of my 2024 goals with step-by-step guidance on the mindset and thoughts I pursued to create this path of manifestation.

⛰️Finding your Mountain

Before I can identify how I’ll summit this mountain that represents my dream, I first need to understand what my mountain means to me by giving myself a sherpa or guide. For instance, I know that I want to improve my writing and grow this newsletter. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and refining my ideas while I explore stories or concepts.

Connect your dream to an activity you enjoy.

At this point, the bit of reflection from before helps me identify that I enjoy the act of writing and desire to refine my voice through practice. I want my voice heard, and I’ll need a town square, an intimate dinner, or a newsletter. Contrary to what some may think, my motivation originates from a desire to connect with others who are similarly curious and conceivably engage with my writing to spark conversation that further refines my ideas.

Okay, now that I know what works for me, I’ll need to narrow down to the sharp point truly representing the year’s apex or summit. From what I described, two phrases stand out:

“I enjoy the act of writing”

“connecting with others who are similarly curious”

Among them are two verbs: connecting and writing. Refining further, when you connect, you make yourself known to others. And with all of that distillation of words, I came up with this goal:

To be a known writer

This is my summit. Now I understand where I need to head, and it associates beautifully with my core motivations. How do I define known? I’ll discover that as I explore the milestones or camps along this mountain as I make my way toward this new summit.

This dream will likely continue beyond this year, so I asked myself, what would I do in this first year?

What’s a dream you have for 2024 or beyond? I’d love to hear about it!

Setting Smaller Goalposts to Sustain Motivation

🏕️Camps to the Summit

For some of the largest mountains in the world, such as Mount Everest, those attempting to summit them have found setting up camps along the way an effective method to sustainably summit. Each camp represents a milestone I’ll reach where I can pause, reflect, resupply, and celebrate the accomplishments made so far. It feels appropriate to make this into a written journal of reflection where I share my learnings as I go. In that spirit, let’s define a few questions I might reflect on at the end of each quarter:

• Did I discover something that surprised me?

  • In continuous writing, I may surprise myself. But even more interesting is when someone responds with their own lens, which somehow compounds my reflections.

• Where did I struggle?

  • Identifying what I’m struggling with leads me to refine my process to reach the next milestone regardless of smaller failures.

• What connections have you made as a result of your writing?

  • Connecting with others and staying in touch is something I’m working on. Asking this keeps it top of mind, so I keep those touch points alive. Who knows, it may spark further conversations and writings.

I may discover other questions along the way in the hopes that it will deepen my reflection. With this approach, I don’t set any particular numbers as they’re defined later by the accumulation of smaller milestones. I’m free to aim loosely and thrive on the journey to my summit. As I prepare for this ascension, I’ll give myself January to acclimate and figure things out as climbers often do before a big climb.

📍Planning your Route

In climbing and mountaineering, a climber often plans the route before they even begin to mitigate risk, increase sustainability, and more. This is no different. Each month, to continue the mantra of being a known writer, I’ll aim to collaborate with another writer on a topic that holds my interest.

This approach targets both parts of my dream, encouraging me to connect with another writer and write on a topic I want to write about. The additional benefit is that it creates external accountability with the other writer in the process. Something I know will help me push more when I get stuck.

⚙️Gearing for your Pitches

In climbing, a big climb is broken up into pitches or a section of a climbing route. To successfully top a route, a climber determines what gear they’ll need and hones the techniques for a pitch. They also don’t often climb alone. Similarly, to succeed in my goal, I’ll need to practice my writing, develop my writing instruments, and be a collaborator to get outside feedback on my improvement. It additionally evolves an aspect of being known among the community of writers and readers.

External Accountability is a common technique for accomplishing tasks by creating an external force function. In this case^[3], I’m telling someone I’ll collaborate with them.

Toward those efforts, each week, I’ll pitch at least one writing collaboration and publish one newsletter post, whether light or heavier lift. There may be weeks that I miss this goal, and that’s okay, as the main purpose is to build the muscles of consistency.

🌬️Every breath matters

As I get closer to the summit, the air will get thinner. Sometimes, I’ll need to take a break, such as quietly reading a book to re-energize or talk about how I’m feeling. Recognizing this as part of the system helps make the rough patches easier to persevere through.

For this level, I’ll form the daily habits that drive me toward the next pitch, allowing myself some space to breathe and take care of other things that come up in life. Each day, leveraging an existing tool I find helpful, the Pomodoro technique, I’ll dedicate 30 minutes to an hour with focused intentions on the following:

• Two days for writing something - this can also include a collaboration pitch, a draft, a poem

• Two days for editing/refining - reviewing my work early often helps me

• Two days for ideation and feedback gathering - I’m a social creature and thrive on collaboration

• One day for getting things done - collaborative pitch refinement, further writing, or editing. Sort of a free day to drive toward the weekly milestone

The Pomodoro technique is where you set a timer for a set amount of time, often 15-25 minutes, where you deep-focus on a task in a set time and then another timer for 5-10 minutes to give yourself a break. Read more about this technique and how it affects sustained and focused work.

With the above, I have something every day, especially during lunch^[4], even if it’s just a little to stay consistent. As I approach the summit, I suspect this habit will become easier as I build my writing endurance and techniques.

Do you have a renewal ritual? If so, what is it? If not, let me know if this post inspired you!

Recap: Creating your own Summit System^tm*

♻️The Process

1. Define your dream - by connecting it to an activity you enjoy, you increase your likelihood of sticking with it.

2. Break it down to the habits that get you to the first milestone.

3. Inject tools into your systems to keep you on track - this may involve some self-reflection to find out where you struggle.

🛠️Tools I Used

• External Accountability - to encourage getting things done.

• Pomodoro - to support getting started when energy is low.

• Habit Stacking - to help build the muscles of regularity.

That’s it. Phew, this has been the longest post I’ve written so far. A post I’m proud to finish after an intense transition into the new year for myself. Now, to figure out how to get some of the art I’ve created here and turn it into a motivational poster!

Thanks for following along with me, and I hope you’ve found this a helpful exercise. Until next time, keep dreaming; you only live once…

To be a wizard is to constantly challenge the boundaries of what is possible. Never settle for mediocrity. - “So You Want to Be a Wizard” by Diane Duane

📖Const Learning

[1]: Stephen Johnson gives a seminar based upon his book, “Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World” exploring the origins and history of play. An absolutely fascinating topic that only encouraged me further to expand my personal time for play and creativity.

[2]: Reference to previous writing that reflects on my failed attempts to build habits and what tools and techniques eventually worked for me.

[3]: External accountability is defined on multiple levels, as described in this article.

[4]: Reference to a technique that has worked for me in the past: Habit Stacking.

*Not actually trademarked