How I feel after writing 365 Poems in 365 Days

I feel pretty good. Pretty darn good. 

It's the first day of 2019 and I'm taking a second to reflect back on the whirlwind of a year that was 2018 and I have to say, I'm satisfied. No Regerts (as the meme says). 

I remember this time 2017, writing my post reflecting on my ambitious goal setting and resolving to set fewer goals - which I, erm, sort of did. In 2017 I had set 4 categories of goals with 19 "sub-goals", let's call them. Here's where it got tricky. If you take the large categories, I completed 3 out of 4 (or 75%) but if you take the 19 sub-goals, I accomplished a measly 36% of them. Fast forward to 2018, I was doing the same thing, reflecting, and goal setting and here we are today.  I am happy to report that in 2018 I had set 17 goals (so...2 fewer) and I accomplished 58% of them. Whew. 58% . 

Now, I'm not just counting widgets here. I also do a deep-down reflection on ensuring the goals I set relate to my purpose, to my mission. And, if you've read any of my previous posts, you've probably concluded my mission is to help others find peace and go through life with ease. Whoa, what do I mean by that? Lately, when I read that phrase, and the phrase I have written on the home page, I get concerned I'm giving the impression that I think we should only do things that are easy and comfortable. Which is not at all what I mean. What I'm saying, is that with the right attitude, the right state of mind, the right tools, all experiences can be brought to comfort and ease. It's the premise through yoga, that with a mind to body connection, we can truly dictate how we experience being. Just with a yoga pose you try for the first time, take....fire log pose. Perhaps you get into it and the first few seconds your hips are tight and on fire and it's discomfort not pain so you sit with it a while, and maybe you are in a yin class so you sit with it for longer. And the music is playing and your instructor reminds you to breathe and suddenly you're no longer thinking about the discomfort, you're just being, and when your yoga teacher calls for you to notice, to see what's different, you realize that you've sunk deeper into the hip opening than you thought possible, and the discomfort has vanished, or it hasn't, it doesn't matter, because there's no judgement. And maybe, over time, you'll feel no discomfort at all, even though what your body is accomplishing is ambitious and amazing. That's comfort and ease. So did I get closer with my goals in 2018 to bringing that about? Yes, I think I did. 

So, let's go deeper into those 10 out of 17 goals accomplished. One thing that Ross, my spouse, and I did together as a family is we committed to not buying red meat and only having red meat at restaurants or as venison (a gift from my parents). It has worked out great and we are keeping it up in 2019. To me, eating less red meat aligns with the first yama in yoga philosophy, ahimsa, or non-violence. Ahimsa is about being compassionate to yourself and others and I include living creatures and mother nature in that category and therefore, not eating red meat is bringing comfort and ease to all earthlings. Check, check, on goal #1 for 2018. 

Goal #2 was to write a poem every day for the entire year. Big check on that one. Great big check. It aligns with  my mission in that I hope it prompted some creativity and authentic reflection for others which might ultimately lead to comfort and ease. As the title of this post suggests, I wanted to articulate how I feel now that I've followed through on my commitment to myself. It really is a good feeling to follow through on what I said I would do and live with integrity. Ultimately, that goal was a promise to myself. I kept it, which makes me trust myself even more. Even if it did nothing else, I feel as though that exercise gave me a baseline, a metric, against which I can measure my abilities. I know that I can hold myself to a creative commitment for an entire year! After that, maybe I can do anything!? Also, I really enjoyed it. I have to thank Mary Jo Hoffman from Shoreview, MN who inspired the entire goal. It was her talk at Creative Mornings MSP that prompted me to delve deep into what creative outlet I truly enjoyed and figure out a realistic yet challenging goal to set for myself. And I did it! And it worked! I have already enjoyed looking back at my poems from 2018 to see what my year held. It became a stylistic journal of sorts and I think I will treasure it always. 

Will I write a poem a day in 2019? Nah. Will I continue to write poems? Absolutely. I am way better at catching that stray thought that holds a poem and capturing it readily. I know I'll continue to be inspired to write my world up into poems. I also want to take some time to review the poems I've written and see where they could improve. I said at the beginning that I never expected many of my poems to be amazing, I was just hoping to spread some comfort and ease with an outlet for creativity. 

The rest of my goals ranged from home projects, creative projects, and even relationships. The were widespread and I'm glad I did nearly 60% of them. 

My goals for 2019 are simple. I made 16 of them. In general, I aim to create more than I consume (which I'll do by reading fewer books for leisure, 48 compared to 110 in 2018). Again we're committing to not buying red meat. And, in Moonswept Yoga goals, I plan to host my very first Yogetry Workshop. It's Yoga + Poetry. I've already begun planning and I'm ecstatic! My "create more than I consume goal" encompasses so much and will do so much to support my mission. I have a million book, painting, and crafting ideas in my head that just need some time and dedication to come to fruition. Time and dedication. Now that I've written 365 poems in 365 days, I think I know what to do. 

I'd love to hear what your goals were for 2018 and how they turned out - or what you're looking ahead to for 2019. Am I the only one who does a statistical analysis on their goal setting? ;) Let me know! 

Thanks for reading - 

AKC