January BBA Challenge: Goals or Hopes for the New Year

Blogging Business Artisans is a diverse team of Etsy sellers and bloggers to which I belong. We support and encourage each other to grow as artisans and business owners while socializing online through private discussions. One of our team requirements is meeting a team challenge four times a year. There are 12 challenges, and you choose the ones that appeal to you most and/or whose timing you can meet.

This month, jewelry designer Sharla of Beaded Tail challenged teammates as follows:

What do you hope to accomplish this year? What are you looking forward to doing in 2016? Do you have plans to travel someplace exciting, move to a new home/city or how about get a kitten? Will you be taking your shop in new directions? Let us know or give us a hint of your year to come!”

As some of you may already know, this first month of 2016 got started with a big surprise: the news that I had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer, subsequently underwent major surgery and am now in recovery, and will likely be looking soon at the possibility of several radiation sessions. Whatever else I had planned for 2016, I must say that starting off the year this way clarifies and simplifies your priorities. So, here we go!

Celebrate the moment. In January nearly everyone I know, including myself, vows that this will be the year they eat more healthy foods, become more fit, get adequate sleep—in short, this will be the year of the body makeover. My goal this year is not so lofty; I’d simply like to recover from surgery, successfully undergo radiation treatment, and then live each day in a balanced way. Certainly that means making better food choices and establishing a regular routine of walking. But it doesn’t mean climbing a mountain, booking an exotic cruise, or moving into a more spacious home (which would be nice). It does mean taking joy in the small moments and being happy to be alive.

Write more. In my previous post I mentioned that last August I started working full-time out of the home after spending many years at home, writing, crafting and volunteering. The result was that my writing habits languished—something I deeply missed. Writing helps me maintain a positive outlook. I use blogging, a public form of writing, to touch base with others whose interests are similar to mine, or to share my passion for creative endeavors. I write poetry, a private form of writing, to reflect about personal issues. I’d love to get back to writing real letters—old-fashioned paper letters that make people laugh and cry and hope and reminisce, real letters that people unfold and re-read and save, instead of e-mail notes that get deleted with a click or deposited into a virtual trash can.

Keep the hands busy. Everywhere you look, I have UFOs (UnFinished Objects) scattered all over the house. There are balls of yarn on the family room couch in the basement, waiting to be crocheted. There are projects bags filled with linen fabric, colored threads and beads, waiting to be stitched up. There are boxes—yes, stacked boxes—of fabric, waiting to be sewn up into organizers, journal covers, purses, place mats and more. There are stacks of card stock and printed papers on the verge of being turned into handmade books. And finally, there are lists of project ideas that will likely never see the light of day. I perpetually lament not having enough time to get things done, but the reality is that I will never have enough time in this lifetime to get it all done. Who does? But you’ll never get anything finished if you don’t start. Just keep the hands busy, and do it. Get used to doing what you can with the time that you have, and don’t look back.

That’s it. Those are my goals for this year. Everything else is secondary. What are your goals for 2016?

© 2016 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.