We’re not quite twenty days into the new year and I have so many ideas and aspirations to motivate me through the rest of the year.

I have a mantra or two that I come up with every year around late August/early September (more on that later) and I reinforce it every January. This year I am tackling my artist tendencies and trying to break down my inability to let go of crafted perfection.

Progress, not perfection: trust the process

I realize that I actually learned this skill a long time ago when I was starting out in software engineering and learning Agile methodologies. Draft, publish, refine. Iterate, iterate, iterate. It doesn’t matter if it’s code or painting practice; I have a tendency to stop working on art when I am not happy with how it’s coming along, and I will admit that it’s still been an internal struggle the last few days. My birthday just passed and I am now closer to my mid-thirties than ever before, but I don’t have much to show for the last several years. A surprise painting here and there, a study that somehow came out really nicely but unfinished overall… even with my writing I produce inspired paragraphs of visual imagery but nothing more. This is the year I make good habits and actually finish projects.

2026: Goals

This year I am looking forward to accomplishing small wins, and there will be several. I am closer to my mid-thirties than ever before and this is the year I start truly thriving. More friend group dates, more quality time with Hubs, more cooking, more reading. (I have so many books to read.)

I’m going to come back to this list at the end of the year as well as revisit it periodically, so this is my accountability memo to myself.

This year’s TODOs

• De-clutter my house from top to bottom
• Donate or sell all the clothes that don’t fit
• Work out at least 3x a week
• Go for a walk for an hour every day (in this weather I have a walking pad so I don’t die of frostbite)
• Be more organized at work
• Keep actually practicing my art
• Write more (via this blog)
• Listen to so much good/new music that Taylor Swift isn’t in my top 5 artists at the end of the year (sorry, A)
• Be kinder to myself and to everyone around me
• Be concise and make it a habit
• Pay off debts (should be on track to do this by November)
• Don’t create a life crisis this year
• Journal every day

So far I have already de-cluttered the living room and luckily my house is fairly small, so tackling the house room by room will be less of a chore. My cheap little stick vacuum cleaner died last year and while we have a ShopVac, I am looking forward to buying a new vacuum cleaner soon. Ah, the joys of your thirties! Added bonus: I got a KitchenAid for my birthday so I get to cross that off of my list of stuff to buy. (I’m already eyeing the attachments so I can make pasta, etc.) This is the year my hyper-focused cleaning skills flourish. This is the year I flourish.

Anyway, hopefully it is pretty obvious by now that this blog will just be an outlet where I put my thoughts to paper so to speak, so pardon the randomness. New year, new Grace, new outlook on life.