Too often we here at the Sneer Campaign find ourselves in the manic fits of goal-making for the upcoming year during the end of December. Fueled by sugary treats and warm holiday cheer, we are on top of the world. We are invincible.
Take a look at our yearly planners when we set them up in December and you’ll find that each of us reasonably expects to achieve four milestones per week. For instance, I decide that I won’t write the Great American Novel next year, I’ll write a Great American Novel each quarter. I also intend to have time to train for a marathon even though my exercise habits are minimal at best so far in life, to travel the whole world somehow in no particular order, gain a promotion at a job I don’t even have, master a dozen new artistic disciplines, and maybe form a new nonprofit organization that really will change the world this time.
At the end of December, the concepts of “obstacles” and “setbacks” don’t exist, and Time is always kind to all endeavors. Success comes to those who know that they can succeed. That’s all there is to it.
I have been victim to this pie in the sky thinking for many years now. The Secret, I believed, was in simply believing that I will always be full of hup, the very same hup that I would be experiencing as I optimistically made my lists and matched up calendar days with my naiveté. The memories I had of my own personal history that is checkered with malaise, despair, and necessary absenteeism were all false memories, I would claim. Besides, hup now means hup forever, and my goals were as good as already achieved.
For whatever reason, I didn’t fill out my trusty goal journal in December 2024 recently (it’s not that recently anymore), and now I realize that I am gaining a new perspective about planning for goal achievement.
January 2025 was grey. Greyer than it has any right to be outside of England. So grey that I lost all joy. I lost my will to think ahead, even into the next month. How could I set goals now, I wondered, when I cannot remember what it is like to have enthusiasm? I decided to put off planning until I was able to think forward.
But then came February. February is the hardest month to live through. Only 28 days containing 31 days of discouragement and deep sighs. I forget about February every year until I’m in it, and then I go, “Oh yeah… I do try to forget this feeling all the other months, don’t I?” I found myself not even recording my activities in my journal, which is the bare minimum of what I mean to do with journals!
And this particular year, March was still cold. It was still dreary. There were so many news items and societal concerns that were unlocking themselves right before my very eyes, even though I was trying to keep my eyes squeezed shut for my own sanity. I’m not trying to make this into an emotional diary entry though, so let’s just wave our hand away at the horrors of March and conclude by saying that the whole of Quarter 1, 2025, slipped through my trembling little fingers.
I did manage to jot down some goals, though, in spite of it all. That little existential panic brings a tiny spark of energy, and I recommend that you cling to it whenever it arises. In times like this year so far, you have to balance the need to be Aware with the necessities of knowing which battles to fight. Shrieking at world news is ineffectual. You have to start small. You have to shriek at your own news in order to make a difference. You cannot shriek from an empty cup, also, as they say.
And I finally got to plannin’. And I got to writin’ this here article. Well, actually I got to putting this article in the Word Press drafts area. I started writing it in January.
Of 2024.
That’s right, I started to learn this S.A.D. goal lesson in 2023. This is a little plot twist.
And we are basically in May 2025 now. I KNOW.
Anyway my experience and now expertise on the matter tells me that what was an accident should be done purposefully. Instead of waiting for a good day and optimism, strike while the iron is realistic.
1. Just Write Off The First Quarter
April Amandoll has the wisdom of hindsight. I think I have learned this every year since I started to become productive and then forgotten it immediately: January through March are lived through a molasses made of despair. Expect to do like two things, tops. But let those two things make you feel great!
Suggestions:
- Host a party and then sleep for as long as you can.
- Restart a passion project, but just a little bit.
- Do a soft return opening.
- But mostly, fill those months with “”self care.”” Whatever that may mean to you.
2. Be Realistic, Really
If you are depressed, it is a perfect time to make life goals. Instead of packing your weeks with expectations and pressure, you are able to distill your desires into a handful of things that are most important to you. Instead of losing sight of your true calling because of your one thousand minor-goal distractions, you know what to put your precious energy toward when you have it.
Envision being stuck in a bog, physically and literally. As you sink in the muck, what would your sad little devastated mind wish it had accomplished? In this daydream, what do you mourn as a missed legacy? Write these things down! Because later on, that will be you emotionally and psychologically. Following my advice though means that you’ll have a list of actually important-to-you ideas to work on when you surface for a little gasp of air. Sometimes that pre-existing mini-list will be all you need to crawl into some form of action.
3. Celebrate Your Achievements
If you try to accomplish three things in a year but get five instead, you’ll be so proud! We will all be so proud of you! Versus accomplishing five great things when you had announced to the world an even thirty? Or maybe four HUNDRED hopeful achievements, if you’re frequently delusional like we are? That’s a happiness-thief. Why do that to yourself? Why do we do this to ourselves?
When you are S.A.D., you will be hard on yourself for only doing one thing in Quarter 1. But by adhering to your intention of celebrating and giving yourself a little treat, no matter if you think you actually deserve it, you will train your brain like it is a little puppy. You will be teaching it to want to do things so that it gets another little treat. And the next thing you know, it will be May and you will be awake again, and able to work on your stuff.
If this article is really here to encourage you, if I am writing For You, then I would like you to have a talk with your grey, lifeless, withered will sometime this week and figure out one thing you’d like to do this year. You can weep if you need to, but then allow yourself to make a little side list or two of other things you’d be delighted to also experience or complete.
And if you have already emerged like a goal cicada, having shirked off your husk and are now clinging to the ambitious tree of dreams and screaming as nature intended — then I apologize for not finishing this article when I drafted it in March.
Just print out a copy of this and fold it up neatly in your goal calendar book at December. That is when you’ll really need it.
