Three Specific Intentions for 2025

Here we are, the first day of 2025.  In my younger years, I'd be making resolutions.  Some of them would be broken by the end of the day.  By the waning days of the year, I'd have to look back at my list of resolutions to even remember what they were.

In the past decade or two, I've made resolutions in different ways.  I've "set intentions," but those are mostly resolutions.  I've chosen a word for the year.  I've made goals and lists and wishes and hopes.  But really, I do this all time.  One year I said I wanted to read 100 books, a specific goal which I found very motivating, much better than "eat more veggies."

I went back through some lists of January blog posts, and it seems like awhile since I've done any sort of New Year's Day goal setting.  I was intrigued by this blog post in the beginning of 2020, which looked ahead to 2030, and it's interesting to read the post here at the middle of the 2020's decade.  But I don't want to write about that today.

Today I want to set some goals.  I already do the basic stuff:  getting a minimum of exercise days each week, eating healthfully as much as possible, reading, etc.  Let me set some specific intentions.  At the end of each month, I will look back and see how I am doing.

Strength Training

In addition to doing the heart healthy aerobic exercise (150 minutes a week), I want to do more strength training.  Let me be more specific.  I want to do strength training 20 days out of every month, 10 minutes over an exercise session.  I had good luck popping by the Faith Center work out room during my walk.  I did that in August and September, and then Hurricane Helene upended so many of my plans.

Poem Writing

I am not feeling OK about how many poems I am not writing.  I do a good job of writing down fragments and inspirations, but I'm also aware that I have fewer inspirations and fragments in the past year or two than has been usual.  I want to end the year with 52 poems written, finished poems.  They may not be worth sending out, but they need to be finished.  Fifty-two poems gives me space to catch up, and space to have a white hot streak that sets me ahead. 

Sketching the Human Body

In the next day or two, I'll make some sketches so I will be able to show how much I have improved by the end of the year.  I have lots of ways to improve my ability to sketch a lifelike human, but I want to concentrate on faces (both from the front and profile) and hands, and not in isolation, but as part of the figures that I draw.  Here's the way I usually approach my inability to draw faces and hands:

I want to improve.  This goal is nice because it will encourage me to sketch a bit here and there, and it could encourage me to go really deep.  I need a goal that's a bit less rigorous, a goal that encourages creativity.