Goals, not Resolutions

New Year celebrationsNew beginnings.

Both the Winter Solstice and Imbolc can be seen as perfect times to think about new beginnings, but for some reason I was really conscious of the tolling bell of Big Ben at midnight of the 31st December 2013. There was a time when that time and date were my benchmark for looking forward, wiping the slate clean, and looking to a new adventure. Then my cycle tuned more and more into the eightfold Wheel of the year and I found the Winter Solstice and Imbolc being more important to me. But for some reason the old date returned as important this time.

Dates that offer the opportunity to refresh our intent, that allow us to look at our lives and actions and help us to put the past behind, and look with fresh eyes at the coming months are extremely useful. 2013 was, on the whole, a great year for me. It was one of those years that helped me focus on what I truly wanted.

2014 is the year I put that into full practice.

I haven’t made any resolutions. There’s no point. I know that. But I have set myself some goals for this year.

More short tours in different parts of the country.

More regular blog posts and newsletters.

Songbook 2 published.

A new studio album by the end of November.

So along with my other regular commitments that’s already a pretty busy, but incredibly creative, year. Come back in 12 months and let’s see if I achieved those goals!

11 responses to “Goals, not Resolutions”

  1. Great luck with your goals. For some reason I felt the same as you indicate in your blog this year. Hope your goals include coming to the States! How about Austin, Texas?!

  2. I like the sound of your goals! Hopefully we’ll get you in Manchester soon, then? Also looking forward to a new album. I don’t listen to much folk but there’s a bit of an edge (in a good way!) to your work – be it in the music or the lyrics – that seems to resonate with me.

    I like the idea of goals rather than resolutions. The problem with resolutions is that you feel disappointed when you don’t keep them. But with goals, even some progress towards achieving them is positive.

    My goal this year is to live as sustainably as possible, starting with the food I eat and the energy I use – I’ve set up a blog to document it all. I’ve also decided that this should be the year where I stop shouting at the world and start joining in more with local environmental activist groups – especially close to home now half of the beautiful North West where I have lived all my life is about to be ripped apart by hydraulic fracturing.

    Have a brill year.

  3. I have taken to setting goals, not making resolutions, as well. I find it’s easier to work towards a goal than keep a resolution, and more fulfilling as well. There’s the bonus that goals are generally achievable, whereas resolutions are often open ended and, it seems to me, destined for failure.

    I also have conflicted feelings about December 31st being a ‘new beginning’ time, though like you I took some time this year to think about the coming calendar year. It’s very hard to ignore the rest of the world around me, I guess, and most of the world around me celebrates that new beginning on that date.

  4. Thanks for telling us about your resolutions – I think it’s a big thing to make them so public – well to those who follow you.

    I agree too that Resolutions are more achievable for the reasons others have said in their replies above.

    GOOD LUCK TO YOU and to all those other folk who are trying to formulate their own next steps for 2014! Namaste.

  5. JUST POSTED MY COMMENT and it’s sooo early in the dark wet morning I’m half asleep (6.16am)….I meant to write that GOALS are more achievable than RESOLUTIONS but mixed up the words…..SORRY, maybe it doesn’t matter anyway, they’re only words! It’s the intent and action that matter…. Ho Hum!

  6. My big resolution for the new year was to survive another year, that is more than some people accomplish. My biggest goal for the year is to graduate college.
    I would love to get to see you come and perform here in the U.S.A. I live in Illinois which is a far cry from Texas, but you do have fans here in the U.S. as well. I look forward to your new CD and your new song book. I have book 1 and enjoy it very much.
    Good luck with your goals.

  7. Good to hear about your goals – I set intentions for the year I agree with Jayne intentions/goals feel less like an order. Look forward to seeing/hearing you in Glastonbury at the summer gathering at least. Blessings.

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