Did I act today in a way that tomorrow’s retrospective would find acceptable, even helpful? Have I established routines and approaches to my life that I can reap next year? These kinds of questions are both common and important. I plan to keep these front of mind for my theme, Year of the Future.
My focus is setting myself up for the future, acknowledging this year as the beginning of a new part of my life. While living in the present is important, I also need to recognize today as an opportunity for tomorrow. There is a healthy balance to be found: this theme isn’t implying that everything done today must make for a better tomorrow. Or rather, the definition of better is slippery, and I have to have a clear sense of what line I’m drawing as I reflect. Yes, I want to be healthy. But I also want to allow myself small indulgences.
This theme is hierarchical. The most important thing is setting up a group of habits and framing devices that I exercise, growing my ability to respond to the world in a healthy way in the future. However, those broad goals are met only by individual actions that I have to hold myself accountable for. Is eating dessert okay? In the abstract, sure. But it needs to be part of a trend that generally discourages it being consumed on a whim, and rather part of special events. Each choice must be made in the context of tomorrow and next year. As such, it is a thought technology if you will, a lens through which I will try to view the world this year to better understand how I can improve. I don’t have many concerns about what I need to do to reach my various goals, so this year I want to focus on the how. I believe I have a sufficiently powerful way of reframing how I perceive myself that will allow me to adjust the small actions I take on the way to effecting large changes in my life.
My previous themes have done a lot to inform and enable Year of the Future. Being able to focus, build routines, and have a strong foundation with my partner enables me take a wider view of my life and use these tools to my benefit. This year’s theme is about making decisions in a new way, while relying on the growth I’ve experienced in the past year to aid in enacting those decisions.
This feels like a natural extension of what I’ve done in years past, and I’m excited to implement it and see what I can build.
Addendum, 13:00 PST, January 9, 2023
Last year I wanted a physical reminder of my yearly theme, but never came up with a good idea. This year, the natural choice was to spoof the Back to the Future logo design. I found this font available for download and made the poster in Vectornator, an awesome free design tool for macOS and iPad. I just got back from getting the final printed and laminated version from FedEx.
