This was a fun little exercise in Illustrator. I just sat down and started writing all of the things I’m interested in right now. I’ve been feeling burned out and distracted, generally lost with what I want to do at any given time. So, I created a cloud of interests.

What was the point of this? Really, for me it was a way of identifying a number of the things that have been floating around in my head. Some of them are abstract, such as “friends”, while others are more concrete (e.g., “language learning”). The goal was just to get most of them out of my head and on paper erm, the screen. There are other things, too, like home improvement projects, building out my bearded dragon’s enclosure, etc. Heck, I feel like I should add those in even as I’m writing them here, but I’ll leave it at this for now.

Reboot

Since I’ve been feeling burned out, and generally lost, I thought writing down a number of the things I’d like to do would help me identify them and form a clearer vision about how to achieve them. For the more abstract, such as “friends”, I can tackle it two ways. The first is by setting aside more time to get together with friends I don’t see nearly often enough. The second is by tying in other interests from my cloud above with my friends. For example, set up game nights and play Magic: The Gathering, or run a D&D campaign — which in turn would tie in writing!

I think it’s important to have goals and dreams and ideas – and I know many people would agree! But I think it’s also critical to be able to formulate some kind of idea for achieving them. Having them in your head is great, but it’s another thing entirely to put them into action and see them through.

Your Turn

Sit down and take a few minutes to jot down the ideas and goals you’ve had floating around in your head. It doesn’t matter how crazy or unachievable they may sound right now. On the flip side, no goal can be too small or unimportant seeming, either! Want to be able to run a mile? Put it down! What to be able to run 10? Fantastic! Want to simply get out and walk your dog more often? Go for it!

Don’t feel like you have to make it look nice or fancy. Grab a napkin and a marker if that’s all you have near you, and just start writing down your ideas. Once that’s done, sit back and take a look at everything you wrote down. What items are related? What ones are you already working toward? What would you like to achieve next, and how can you go about doing it? Pick a item and run with it. Heck, pick two or three if you feel like it! Just make sure you can see them through in whatever way you define. You may get part-way through one and decide it’s not for you. If that’s truly the case, then so be it! Drop it, take what you’ve learned, and move on to the next thing. But never stop dreaming. Push yourself to do new things and step out of your comfort zone Get out there and explore.

Here’s to the new you. Here’s to the future.