“There is nothing magical about the flip of a calendar,” says Jason Soroski, “but it represents a clean break, a new hope, and a blank canvas.” Making New Year’s Resolutions presents us with an opportunity to reboot our lives, and reset our habits.

I typically keep less than half the resolutions I make every year, because I firmly believe that breaking New Year’s Resolutions is good for you. You can read my last few sets  of resolutions here.

This year, I have an altogether different challenge from years past. Instead of straining to achieve, or delving to discover, this year I am in recovery from one of the hardest working years of my life. I achieved much last year (as chronicled in my 2018 Annual Review) and this year, my focus is to live with ease, and to heal.

Power Playlist 5x/week before 8am

My new morning routine is a 30-minute playlist that guides me through a set of good habits:

  • Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy – get on yoga mat, leg stretches
  • Dancing With Shiva – Joti – sun salutations
  • Michael Franti & Spearhead – Say Hey (I Love You) – core work and crunches
  • Pharrell Williams – Happy – plank and push-ups
  • Gabrielle Bernstein – Growing Your Light – guided meditation

This is the soundtrack to a morning that helps me wake up well. I don’t resolve to play this playlist every day, in keeping with going easy on myself this year, but I will resolve to go out on my balcony and play this playlist 5 times per week.

Sleep in when I need to heal

After years of setting resolutions to wake up early, I am habituated, and I tend to rise before 7 unless I try to sleep in. This year, I will try. I’ve found that I will not sleep in, even when sick, unless I create the space for myself, and I’ve created that space this year.

Rest when stressed

When I have fallen ill recently, my bouts of sickness are usually preceded by a frantic period, where I am trying to work while feeling stressed. I know exactly what these moments feel like, so this year, I will clock out and rest when I feel this way – even if it is only for fifteen minutes. My hope is that this resolution can contribute to my natural healing remedies and keep me from falling ill so regularly.

Journal every day

One page a day is all I resolve. I know I would function better as a creative if I journaled three pages every day, but I have found this goal to be difficult to achieve regularly. In keeping with my modest goals for this year, I am only resolving to write a single page. If I get to three, great; and if not, at least I’ve written one page.

Hike every week

After decades of elite fitness, I am challenged by my lack of stamina and endurance. My inclination is to train as an acrobat, but my body can no longer keep up. Light exercise is best for me in this season of my life, and I am surrounded by incredible hiking trails in New Zealand, some of which are right by my house. So long as I spend an hour every week hiking in nature, I am confident I will have both the exercise and the healing that I need this year.

Pamper my wife every month

My wife’s shoulder was bothering her for months, and I told her, repeatedly, ‘go get a massage!’ She wouldn’t do it, I realized, because the emotional labor of finding a good therapist, scheduling the time, and arranging for child care was too much. I did that all for her, gave her two envelopes with cash and addresses and appointment times, and her shoulder is all better. There are a few other ways my wife could use some help in coordinating her own self-care, and I’m going to be proactive about helping her this year.

Attend two conferences

Most of my networking with other professionals takes place online, but I  know the long-term benefits of meeting dozens of new people at industry conferences. Living in a far-off corner of the world, I won’t find many opportunities to network at a conference unless I make it a priority, and I can commit to doing that twice this year.

Audition for something in Wellington

There is a vibrant theatre and film community in Wellington, and I am sure I will spend significant time working on creative projects with this community in the future. For this year, I’m just going to keep my eyes open for an audition, and dust off an old monologue when the time is right.

Invest 5% of all income into Cryptocurrency

If XRP gets big, as some very smart people predict, then I’ll be able to get off the feast-and-famine roller coaster when it does. While it’s trading at less than fifty cents, I take great joy in buying a few hundred shares whenever a client pays me to do something creative for them.

Publish 12 posts on Sales Funnel Strategy

During National Novel Writing Month, I wrote the first 20,000 words of my next book, Sales Funnel Strategy. There are 12 chapters, and they are all first drafts. To improve this manuscript (and continue producing regular content for the Stellar Platforms blog) my plan is to rewrite one chapter every month, and publish it as a blog post. By the end of the year, I will be able to collect all that content, revise a bit more, and move to publish my next book.

Will I keep all these New Years’ Resolutions? Stay tuned, for my Annual Review at the end of 2019. Happy New Year!