The Year Without Goals

It’s April. And here’s the thing I didn’t expect to say this year. I didn’t set any goals.

No word of the year.
No carefully mapped-out plan.
No “this is the version of me I’m becoming” declaration in January.

Just… nothing.

For a long time, I believed that goals were the structure holding everything together. That if I didn’t define where I was going, I’d drift. That progress required clarity, direction, and a measurable outcome.

But this year feels different, not in a dramatic way but a quiet shift.

More like a quiet shift. The kind you almost miss if you’re not paying attention.

When Goals Start to Feel Like Pressure

There’s a subtle weight that comes with traditional goal setting.

You write the list.
You commit to the outcome.
You attach timelines and expectations.

And suddenly, something that might have felt exciting starts to feel like an obligation, and then boom, boring, and it’s unexciting. And if you don’t follow through exactly as planned, it starts to feel like failure rather than an adjustment.

That part never sat quite right with me, because creative life, real life, doesn’t move in straight lines. It’s really just a loopdiloop – a chaos scribble with occasional pauses, and voila, it changes direction without asking for permission.

And sometimes the pressure to “stick to the goal” becomes the very thing that pulls you away from what actually matters.

What I’m Choosing Instead

So instead of goals, I’m making a list – and no, this is not a become more productive, or become better … well, ok, I do want to improve in some areas. It is a list of things I want to do, things I am curious about, and yes, some things I’ve been putting off.

But I want to explore things that are interesting, uncomfortable, and even a little exciting.

You might think it sounds like goals; however, there aren’t deadlines, there is no measuring for success or for failure … just a collection of experiences and intentions.

Because when you say “I want to do this”, instead of “I must achieve this”, that pressure… it hits different, like a space for possibilities.

The Shift I Didn’t Plan For

And maybe this is part of it. Here I am, adding something I didn’t map out at the start of the year.

I’m changing direction as I’m stepping deeper into surface design. And this isn’t an experiment or something I’ll do later… nope, this is something I am actively building into my work and my creative life.

And it wasn’t a goal because, remember, I didn’t actually set a goal earlier this year. I just decided this is what I am going becuase it feels good and aligned with how I’ve always created anyway.

The List

I had a list like this years ago. A simple idea. One hundred things.

Some big.
Some small.
Some practical.
Some are completely random.

And I remember how it shifted the way I moved through the year because, funnily, it did give me direction without boxing me in. It offered options and not expectations, and so I am bringing it back.

And this time, I’m letting it be messy, unpolished, incomplete, but also alive.

100 Things I Want to Do This Year

1. Finish all current unfinished woodburning pieces
2. Finish Immersion Course
3. Get a massage
4. Write a fiction book
5. Create 6 seamless pattern collections
6. Strengthen my core
7. Complete 10 small burns (no pressure pieces)
8. Design a signature moth + mushroom series
9. Explore with watercolor
10. Backpack the Triple Crown in Virginia
11. Visit a museum
12. Go foraging
13. Finish “Make your Art” Course
14. Create 5 placement prints
15. Sign up for a trail race
16. Learn botanical drawings
17. Read one book a week
18. Go camping with friends
19. Write 52 Weeks for Fire and publish it
20. Finish the book I started writing
21. Hike Three Ridges (again)
22. Practice playing the flute
23. Go Tubing with my friends
24. Visit all 44 State Parks that participate in the Trail Quest in VA
25. Backpack in West VA
26. Try a new-to-me cuisine that I haven’t tried before
27. Start Trail Running
28. Sign up for Mammoth March
29. Add another location to sell my pyrography art
30. Visit a botanical garden
31. Work from a coffee shop
32. Take myself out on a date
33. Go to a concert
34. Go to a beach I haven’t been to before
35. Go to a soccer game
36. Visit a historical town
37. Finish my education program, I started
38. Hike to see the sunrise – location to be determined
39. Grow my own vegetables
40. Make my own Greek yogurt
41. Go to a Hockey Game
42. Go on a picnic
43. Visit broadway
44. Refine and update one of my coloring books
45. Train my dog to be less afraid of the world
46. Go hiking with all of my dogs together instead of separately
47. Ride my bicycle
48. See a musical
49. Go on an adventure road trip (no destination, just intuition as the guide to see where you end up)
50. Do the Murder Mystery train ride
51. Become wilderness CPR certified
52. Go to a concert
53. Revamp my space (office/studio)
54. License my first surface design pattern
55. Go to a comedy show
56. Hike in North Carolina
57. Visit a cave
58. Take a class to learn something new
59. Watch a movie not in my typical genre
60. Take an overnight bike backpacking trip
61. Go offroading
62. Find a forest road to walk with my dogs
63. Paint with acrylics
64. Go to a horse race
65. Walk my son down the aisle (cannot wait for this)
66. Create a 2027 Calendar
67. Draw insects in my backyard
68. Declutter the house
69. Visit a hot spring
70. Go on a canoe trip
71. Be part of an Author event
72. Create a coloring book
73. Write a letter and send it via snail mail
74. reach out to a friend to connect
75. Go to the Drive-thru theater
76. Go to a Baseball game
77. Stay in a Postcard Cabin
78. Hike in West Virginia
79. Go to a rodeo
80. Clean out my wardrobe
81. Visit a nature center
82. Go to the Fair as a visitor, not a vendor
83. Take a dog hiking from the SPCA
84. Go sledding
85. Go to a pilates class
86. Visit a farm
87. Visit a state I have not been to yet
88. Make pasta from scratch
89. Go apple picking
90. Hike Old Rag Mountain (again)
91. Take a pottery class
92. Go horseback riding
93. Swim with Dolphins
94. Plant a tree
95. Take a wilderness survival course
96. Hike to a waterfall
97. Get a tattoo (yes, another one)
98. Visit friends and share a meal
99. Go to Harper’s Ferry
100. See Wild Horses

No Finish Line Required

I’m not trying to complete all one hundred (although that would be epic), but again, this isn’t the point of the list. This is a reminder that life is meant to be lived where deadlines and deliverables don’t exist.

I know some things will get done, some won’t, some will take on a life of their own, while others are already forgotten.

Let’s live life with a bit more intention without turning it into another to-do list to be conquered.

Share: