In the writer’s group that I belong to, we have a tradition each January of writing our goals for the coming year. I have long believed that the setting and writing of goals is a sure way to achieve them and taught students and my family this over the years. There is a real sense of satisfaction when I review my goals and realise I can say ‘done’. According to some experts, when we physically write out our goals, we send a message to our brain which then looks for ways to achieve them.
Last year I proposed to our writer’s group that we write a letter to ourselves. The plan was to tell our future-selves how our life would have played out by the end of the year. In particular, what the ‘future-us’ would have achieved by then in our writing. We put our completed letters in an envelope, sealed it, wrote our names and the date on the front, and took it to our first group of 2023. All our missives were placed in one large envelope.
In my letter to myself I took a positive approach, congratulating myself on various writing achievements that I expected to have reached. Actually, I forgot what I had written a year before, so it was fun reading it aloud to the group after our Christmas lunch at a local restaurant.
I discovered that I had achieved many of the things in my letter to self, though there were a couple of ‘ahem’ moments – such as the regular exercise and being more organised. There’s always another year!
We enjoyed the task so much that we decided to repeat this year. I have a few weeks to plan and write my letter to self.
In one of the motivational emails I receive regularly, the following points were suggested for reflecting on life, so perhaps I will use them as a guide within my letter.
Decide, define, delete, declare, deny, demonstrate, determine, and delight.
It will be a challenge to include all of those into a congratulatory letter to myself, and keep the focus on writing projects at the same time, but I will give it my best shot.
What about you?
Do you do New Year goals? Would a letter to yourself acknowledging your achievements over the year be something you might consider?
And on a final note, I give you the words often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi; ‘let us be the change we want to see in the world.’
If we want peace, then that must be included in our goals and vision for 2024; peace in our hearts and homes will spread further afield – perhaps in our writing – and has power to change the world. Our world.
First published on Nana’s Blogs from the Beach, Jan 7 2024 – adapted
Image: Making miniatures is one of my hobbies. This is one I created for family members Christmas 2023.
