๐ŸŒ€ My 2020 goals

๐ŸŒ€ My 2020 goals

2020 wallpaper sketchnotes

As we move into the new year, I have been considering new goals. I sketched new phone wallpapers to keep them in front of me. My goals are to make more mistakes and carry less to give more.


As I wrote about last year, I tried a different approach to my goals. In the past, I have often set a number of goals, as well as rules for myself to try and move myself forward and accomplish more. Last year, my goals were more simple: be intentional, be present, and be curious. After a few weeks, I sketched a wallpaper for my phone to help me remember them.

2019 goals sketchnotes

Overall, these goals were extremely helpful for me in 2019. It was a relief to not have a series of intense goals that encouraged my sense of perfectionism. I would not say that I was perfect at my goals, but as I continued to focus on them, they were helpful to come back to again and again.

I have often enjoyed the changing of the year as a time for reflection and anticipation. I was writing in my journal last week as I considered the question of what my new goals would be.

The one that I know that I would like to embrace this next year is make mistakes. Iโ€™ve been thinking that the phone background that I want is a nicely designed sign that says, โ€œHere we make mistakesโ€ so that I can carry that with me all the time.

As I started pondering this question, the other thing that stood out to me is to carry less. I have a tendency to carry the emotional burdens of others, and as an empath, I feel those keenly as well. Especially since I am hoping to start talking more about mental health at work, I think it is crucial that I learn how to connect with someone in their pain and not take it with me.

Having decided on those two goals, I started sketching some wallpapers. As I did that, I thought more about the second goal and what the purpose is. I realized that the key is that I want to be able to direct my emotional energy to my highest priorities. My natural response to someone elseโ€™s suffering is to carry the perceived injustice. And because of my OCD, I tend to ruminate on the issue, and it weighs heavily on me.

With that realization, I had my three goals. There is nothing magical about having three, but there is a nice symmetry to it. In many ways, they are pretty focused on my home life with my family. I want to work to make our home a safe place to make mistakes and learn together. And then I want to make sure that I reserve enough energy to devote to my family. Too often, I will come home from work exhausted because something happened that drained me. I want to fully engage at work, but not at the expense of being able to engage at home.

I decided this year to split up the goals between the lock screen and the home screen. As I go to turn on my phone, I will remember each time that I want to make more mistakes and become more comfortable with that. And as I start to engage more with my phone and whatever Iโ€™m trying to do with it, I want to see my family and be reminded of my priority.

2020 wallpaper sketchnotes

One last wordโ€”the apps in my dock. Last year, I improved my mental state by switching up the apps in my dock to include apps without badges. I changed it further as I took my phone grayscale and tried to focus more on creation than consumption. Going into this year, I made further adjustments. I have the apps Calm, Things, iA Writer, and Day One now in my dock. Iโ€™ve adjusted the badges so that I rarely have anything show in my dock in order to pay more attention when I do. All of these apps help to focus me on the actions that I want to be taking with my phone.

I am excited for 2020. I hope to continue the great momentum of the last few months, especially in raising awareness and decreasing stigma around mental health. Hopefully I can leave some of the really hard parts of 2019 behind and just enjoy the lessons learned and the ways in which I have grown. Hereโ€™s to a great year! ๐ŸŽŠ

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