Hannah Lily

There are few things I like more than setting GOALS.

Yes, you can take the girl out of corporate etc etc.

It feels though like my creative sabbatical needs a different goal setting approach to slapping on a SMART acronym and calling it a day.

Even talking about goals feels a bit incongruous with a project that is in essence exploratory and the likelihood of setting inappropriately lofty targets (“I’m going to write 6 books!”) or not pushing myself as much as I could (“I really just want to explore a bit”) both feel high.

In the full knowledge that I’ll probably have to adjust over time, what I’ve landed on for now is putting together three ‘tiers’:

1. North Star – The big lofty, slightly intangible goal
2. Projects – More traditional, ‘thingy’ or output-related goals in my key areas of interest
3. Whirls – Things I would like to maybe try if I had time. They may or may not fit into my projects, named for “Give it a Whirl” because whirl is a nice word.

North Star: Develop a creative practice

I think my ultimate goal is to develop a creative practice. If I could explain in a nutshell what I’m lacking at the moment it’s a space, time, tools and method to explore my ideas. I feel like I’ve tried (a bit) but nothing has really ever stuck or perhaps, I’ve never had the time to get it properly going. So if I could:

• Describe my creative practice to someone… or even myself
• Have a sense of routine around it
• Have a sense of preferred mediums and tools

…genuinely that would be life changing.

A stretch goal to this would also be finding a creative community that I could support and be supported by. Are we not all just people in search of other people who get us? I feel like it would be a lot easier to achieve this though if I knew what my creative practice was in the first place so not going to put too much pressure on for now.

If you haven’t come across it before, a north star is a big lofty goal, sometimes (most of the time, when I’ve used it for product management) a fairly abstract higher ideal that you kind of always know is true.

I find North Stars really helpful because, unlike more granular, project-style goals, they allow you to diverge from your day-to-day, to experiment and take risks for a wider purpose. They also give you permission to bow out if something is not getting you towards your higher purpose.

As an example, say you had a goal to do a half marathon and you got injured, you might be really tempted to try to run through it because you’ve committed and really damage yourself. But if your North Star was ‘living the healthiest lifestyle I can’ it might encourage you to realise that being injured would really threaten the wider purpose and allow you to change course.

Projects

That said about North Stars, I also believe in trying to set more granular goals so that I try to ensure I end this period with something tangible. So I’ve had a few pretty diverse ideas floating around my head. Broadly they can be split into five buckets with which I can align a goal. I’ve named them after the big five animals that you can see on safari in South Africa:

1. The Elephant: Immersive Theater App

Goal: Release V1.0 of the app

This is the most developed idea and it’s already ‘in flight’ as I already have support, a draft story, I’ve reached out to a theatre company about it and I’ve applied for Arts Council funding (Developing Your Creative Practice grant if you’re interested). What’s left is the doing of it – finessing the story, building, design. It feels massive.

No one has made a project quite like this before so every step feels like a million decisions are being made. But! I’m absolutely determined to do it.

2. The Buffalo: Writing

Goal: Write a thingy. Have a piece of writing with a beginning, middle and end (even if it’s awful – no one needs to see)

There are two key projects in mind I want to write about, both big, both scary. I haven’t written fiction before. I have no expectation of being good at it.

The thing is writing is the foundational skill for absolutely everything that I want to do creatively and I would love to get better at the craft of storytelling. Pretty sure the only way to do that is to get going and at least try.

I think buffalo – big, calm, bovine-like energy, is what I’m trying to channel here.

3. The Rhinoceros: Board Game Design

Goal: Make a playable game (not necessarily released)

Something a little different. So I went to a game jam, where people get together to design games in a weekend, just for the funsies. While I was there I had an idea for a game that I really like. I was able to develop it and test it enough to think it probably has legs, but at the time I was more focused on our team project so I put a pin in it.

I would love to develop the concept into an actual game and understand more about the game design process. To me, game design, creating something both challenging and fun, is a little bit magical…

4. The Lion: Songwriting

Goal: Write and record a song front to back

Hmmm – even just writing this down feels a bit intimidating. I did a lot of classical music in my youth and always wanted to do contemporary music but I didn’t feel confident enough.

There’s quite a bit of technical skill that appeals to the techy side of me with songwriting as well – the recording, sound engineering and editing.

So yeah, I think I’m pretty much a beginner on this one.

5. The Leopard: Performance

Goal: If the opportunity comes up, I have to say yes (Not a goal as such but…)

So this was actually something my creative coach pointed out to me; that I really like performing as well as making and I might want to include something there.

This might be true but I feel like I have some real mental blocks around it – I was a pretty precocious, confident kid and somewhere along the way I started feeling kind of guilty for enjoying performing. Who was I to stand up there and be special?

…not sure.

Whirls

Ah, the fun bit. This is kind of like a very low-stakes bucket list of everything that I want to try at some point and it would be such a shame not to do some of them in this period. I won’t write them all down, it’s a fairly extensive and changeable list:

• Read and do exercises from the Artists Way
• Try LARPing
• Do a writing retreat
• Do a singing group class
• Play with ink marbling
• Learn to use Procreate
• David Sedaris’ Masterclass
• Shonda Rhimes Masterclass
• Try joke writing
• Do another improv class
• Use up all my gauche (hopefully usefully)
• Get better at iPhone photography

To be honest the list goes on and on. Not sure where these fit in. Maybe there will be a perfect opportunity.

We’ll see how it all goes for the first month or so.

I’m always open to words of wisdom if you have any. Do let me know in comments 🙂