Day One and Day Two: Sitting. Thinking.

I'm searching for a year-long project of some sort, one that stretches me and that is achievable. Last week my husband and I listened to Cait Flander's The Year of Less: How I stopped Shopping, Gave Away my Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store. The same day we finished it, we also listened to A.J. Jacob's  The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, which was where our interests were when I was browsing the online audio library. And we were on a very long car trip, so yes, we were able to listen to many, many hours of two great books.

It seems auspicious to me that it all happened on April 1st, too. (Not all of both books- that would have required more hours awake than we were- just that it all came together on the 1st).  Flanders recapped each month with personal stats and a confidence rating completing the project. Jacobs blew a ram's horn to greet each new month. I sat on my ass through Idaho, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, and thought about starting a project of my own.

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I invited my husband to join me, but realized this needs to be a personal project. So today I've got two I've settled on: 1. A Year of Minimal Shopping, and 2. A Year of Mornings in my Studio. I've started brainstorming the particulars, because one thing I have learned for sure about any project is that if it is way too vague, it is useless. I have explored the useless vague projects for a number of years now, as well as the more productive successful ones, and I have to have specific goals, measurable outcomes, and a way to track it all.

Why not include all the planning in the first few days of the project? And since I have this blog, I'll keep track of it here.