125. Reimagining Resolutions – Michelle Akin
One of the ways I have lovingly tricked my creative people into setting goals is with this simple thought exercise: I ask them to imagine themselves as the main character of a novel that is going to take place over the next year.
One of the many hats I wear is that of a coach for people who are trying to get creatively unstuck. These are people who want to express themselves authentically, who want to make things that matter, but who are struggling. In this process, I help people reframe their work and purpose, get rid of inhibiting bullshit, and replace it with motivating truths. I also help them set goals for themselves.
That last part is always a little tricky. My clients tend to be people who don’t like to set goals; it’s a four-letter word to them. But without a goal, you’re not moving toward anything. Without a goal, there isn’t any way to measure progress—there are no facts, only feelings. You’re at the mercy of your internal weather system. How am I now? How am I now?
One of the ways I have lovingly tricked my creative people into setting goals is with this simple thought exercise: I ask them to imagine themselves as the main character of a novel that is going to take place over the next year. What are the plot points? What is the arc? As a character, what personal transformation do you want to go through?
And that, my friends, is what I’m going to ask you to do today.
Prompt:
Imagine that you are the main character in a novel, the plot of which is going to unfold over the next year. Where will you go? What will you do?
Now write a summary of that novel as the jacket copy for the back of the book.
Anonymous
Location: Ashland, Oregon
About: After careers and jobs as a teamster at the Port of Oakland, an environmental scientist for the government, a race car driver, and a schoolteacher I learned the latter role filled my heart most greatly. I seek to travel throughout the United States after Dr. Fauci and others give the all-clear signal, and help students of all ages wherever they may dwell.
Age: 62
In this heartfelt novel we track Robert’s journey, a quest, really, to better live by listening to his inner soul, The Spirit. Robert learns repeatedly the comfort and joy from asking help in his life’s travels to better serve others. Contemplation, quiet and prayer are continual and by their very actions express gratitude for the gift of life. He learns failure is inherent to the mortal’s life journey. Yet the ups and downs of life, its ebbs and flows, its rhythms, teach him his moral trajectory is ascendant. Not from him, but from the wondrous gift of fullness and happiness he receives as the purported servant. The teacher is verily taught as well. He comes to this realization when he learns that wherever he finds himself is where he can serve. Join Robert as he builds increasing abilities to effuse joy in settings both grand and small, and learns that neither are inconsequential. And that reflecting the love found in faith, in as many actions, words, and deeds as is personally possible deepens and enhances this most precious, most finite time on Earth.
REVIEW: “Scintillating! If this goofball can do this, it’s encouragement for all of us to try!”
H. Y. Snarkworthy IX
Aurelia Clementine
Location: Europe
New year’s eve, 2020, before it turned into 2021.
Ellen went to bed thinking she d drank a little too much. She was feeling nauseous and sleepy. It was not drunkenness, not the kind she could identify, it was a little more. The fatigue was overwhelming, disorientating.
She spent the new year alone, confinement obliged, and around 11:45, she decided to get all dressed up and to open a bottle of champagne. Fuck 2020, after all. She took a few snapshots shortly before midnight and observed them meticulously as the year flipped over. That’s when it started. Sudden stomach pains, sharp, high in her ribcage. She lay down. Convulsions gradually took over, as if she was possessed by an outside force. Her breathing was all over the place, uncontrollable. She was feverish and then cold as ice.
The ride was rough, confusing. In her feeble moments of respite, she thought to herself: what if Covid was an Extraterrestrial phenomenon? What if it was trying to communicate with her? She started to laugh, feebly. She was slipping into a land she didn’t know. 2021 was starting with a bang.
Shannon Twenter
Location: Alexandria, VA
About: Trying to make changes in my life. Afraid. Fighting with that fear.
Age: 44
Chrysalis
As Shannon peered out of her new landscape, she reminded herself to breathe. Having laid down her teacher satchel of the traditional school day and building, she charted a new schedule. She was navigating a world of devising theatre at the tail end of the 2020 Vision Overhaul Pandemic. Her daily schedule of physical creation and collaboration was sandwiched between online teaching and online ham selling. Whatever it took. Her brain and heart in the chrysalis stage. Praying the butterfly would find its wings. But on her own with mounting bills, a missing partner, a yearning for child, and a worn spirit, she felt the cocoon's call. Watch as our protagonist navigates the mysterious stages of cocoon to wings as nature - the world, human, and her own - throws its punches, but also offers the nutrients needed, if she chooses to believe.