A new year, a new set of aspirations. Join me in setting goals for your creative pursuits in 2017. This year I’m trying to schedule when I’m going to work on each goal. Some of these goals are simply continuing things I’m already doing. These are my intentions:

Spiritual life

• My life functions more smoothly when I’m centered in the Lord. One of the best ways to stay in God’s will is by reading the Bible daily. Probably the best time for me to read and reflect on a chapter of scripture is when I first sit down at my writing desk in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I often skip this twenty-minute discipline because life intervenes, I get to my desk late, and I’m afraid I won’t get around to writing. This year, I am going to rededicate myself to the simple, but vital, practice of daily Bible reading. No excuses.

Writing

• Book projects. On Thursdays and Fridays, work on finishing and submitting The Unicornologist. On Saturdays, work on rewriting The God of Paradox.
• ARHtistic License. Work on my daily posts Monday through Wednesday. I schedule at least one post every day, working about a month ahead. Enter some challenges. Fine tune the blog (maybe I’ll post a survey and solicit reader feedback). Grow to 350 followers by December 31.
• Previously written pieces in my file cabinet. On Sundays, rewrite promising pieces as necessary, and submit them.
• On odd-numbered days, write a poem before doing the work of the day.

Visual art

• On even-numbered days, before doing the work of the day, spend 15-45 minutes on a small (or part of a large) piece of art, either zentangle, calligraphy, coloring, sketching, watercolor, or oils.

Artist date

• About once a week, schedule a fun activity away from home. Visit an art exhibit, or go to a concert, or take a photography walk. Maybe get a blog post out of it.

 

Quilting

 

• Continue working with the Gethsemane Piecemakers on the first and third Saturdays. In the intervening weekends, finish ministry quilts, but also work on my own personal projects.

Other

I will continue to:

 

• Practice piano each evening; maybe switch out with guitar or recorder on Sunday nights.
• Folk dance on Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings.

Now it’s your turn. Take the ARHtistic License Creative Goals Challenge:

• If you haven’t already, determine your creative goals for 2017.
• Post your goals on your blog, and leave a link in the comments below. Or if you don’t have a blog, list your goals in the comments. Now, the entire world can see them and hold you accountable. (No pressure. Really. Everyone who reads my blog is really supportive.)
• Put a copy of your goals in your workspace where they can be a reminder of what you want to accomplish.
• Let’s agree to meet back here on the first day of every month to reevaluate our goals and our progress. It’s already on my calendar.

2017 photo from creativity103.com.