Daniela Yevdaev, Period 8, 1/20/22

 Daniela Yevdaev, Period 8, January 20, 2022

Goal Setting & Growth

Previously, when I wrote a blog about this same category, I wrote about the idea

presented in Dahlia Ravikovitch’s poem, “Pride.” I talked about wanting to prioritize myself by

setting boundaries in aspects of my life where I find it a bit hard to say “no”. Now, with the start

of the new year—and I know that the date at the top of this post informs me that it is already 20

days into the year but I love the idea of a fresh start so I can’t deny myself this phrase—I have

chosen to add on to this overarching goal of focusing on myself. I have two specific goals,

challenges really, that I wish to hold myself accountable for. Number 1-my Goodreads

challenge: read 30 books by the end of the year; number 2-my exercise challenge: 30 days of

yoga focused around the concept of movement.

With both of these, or even more broadly, with any challenge, comes the recurring

thought of quitting. Committing to anything is a big deal, that’s why resolutions tend to never

really work out too well. However, this year I have remained resilient! This whole month really

has been a lot. I have had to take days off from school because of Covid and a number of

members in my family have also had to deal with symptoms and then add on to that the

closeness that some of us have to share during these times at home while not being able to see

certain other members who are high-risk. Overall, it has been a bit hard to start or maintain any

sort of routine. Symptoms caused me to take a break from goal number 2 while at the same

time giving me nothing to do on most days except read. I have a habit of holding myself to this

high standard and not being able to meet that bar due to situations that are out of my control

has forced me to cut myself some slack. I have focused a lot of time on talking myself out of

being discouraged over the fact that my challenges aren’t going the way I expected them to. (I

am five days behind on my yoga. Meanwhile, I have finished 7 books already this year.) I am

slowly accomplishing the goals, regardless of the pace that I am going at.

Resilience is being kind to myself when I struggle with the poses and being more lenient

with what I am choosing to read. As Neil Gaiman mentioned in his article “Why our future

depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming,” there is no such thing as a bad book. In his

opinion, reading fiction, reading for pleasure, is simply vital for the futures of society and its

children. Who am I to argue against Neil Gaiman’s extremely accurate point of view? I have

chosen to prioritize reading what I want regardless if it is a short comic book written by a young

adult author (Heartstopper) or a full novel that follows the beautifully simplistic lives of adults

(Beautiful World, Where Are You). I am refusing to let the world around me take these goals

away from me simply because they are not the most “ideal” goals to be having. Although I will

always have a voice in my head stating how there are “more beneficial” books to be read or

“truer” forms of exercise to partake in, 2022 is about expanding my sense of self and prioritizing

myself. Not to sound narcissistic, but these goals are about me and I would like to keep the

world at arms length from them.