Allan Johnson

A New Approach to New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on January 3, 2024January 3, 2024 by Allan Johnson in habits, intention

The new year marks the start of a new chapter and, with it, the tradition of setting resolutions. For many of us, resolutions such as exercising more, getting rid of bad habits, journaling, or learning to meditate become important goals for the year ahead. But most New Year’s resolutions don’t seem to be as effective as we would like to believe. On average, we stick to our New Year’s resolutions for around four and a half months. For more than one in five of us, these resolutions last less than 30 days, and only 6% of us manage to stick to them for the whole year.

To ensure we set ourselves the best possible plans 2024, instead of a taking a conventional approach to goal setting, let’s explore a transformative perspective on how to make lasting change in our lives.

The traditional method of crafting New Year’s resolutions usually involves pinpointing aspects of ourselves that we perceive as shortcomings and then finding ways to ‘fix’ them. Often these resolutions seem daunting, almost insurmountable, which perhaps explains why we often hear little about them after January, and more often than not we resolve to do things because we think that we should rather than considering how the resolutions can contribute to our bigger plans for personal growth.

Instead, let’s consider a subtle paradigm shift: what if we saw them not as distant goals that can make us better in the future, but as invigorating challenges that are part of a longer journey of growth and change? By changing our mindset, we move from merely striving to achieve resolutions to striving for personal growth. Challenges act as a catalyst for adaptability, equipping us with the resilience needed to overcome unforeseen obstacles. They facilitate continuous personal growth by emphasising a journey of constant development rather than fixating on a predetermined end point. This subtle but crucial shift can cultivate a mindset of greater resilience and adaptability, fostering a more positive and constructive approach to self-improvement.

Embracing challenges over resolutions is a powerful catalyst for the development of grit, self-confidence, and discipline. Grit is resilience in the face of adversity, and we cultivate it when we view challenges not as hurdles to be overcome, but as opportunities for growth. The consistent effort required to face these challenges fosters a tenacity that is the foundation of grit. By navigating the varied terrain of our chosen challenges, we learn to trust our ability to adapt and persevere in the face of uncertainty.

In overcoming any challenge, be it small or large, we gather evidence of our abilities and strengths. If we regularly don’t meet the targets that we set for ourselves we quickly come to believe that we don’t have the ability to achieve. However if we make continual progress toward conquering a challenge we build the self-confidence muscles needed to keep us going. This tangible evidence forms the basis for true confidence. Challenges can push us beyond our comfort zone and enable us to tackle future challenges with greater certainty.

Discipline is honed by the constant commitment required to overcome challenges. It is about dedicating ourselves daily to our chosen challenges to create a sense of structure and routine and the discipline we develop in this process can be transferred to different aspects of our lives. It enables us to persevere through the inevitable ups and downs and leads us to sustained success in our personal and professional endeavours.

Fear of failure often leads us to unconsciously undermine our own longer term plans. We may give up sooner than necessary and succumb to the belief, whether consciously or unconsciously, that success is unattainable. This defeatist attitude calls into question the intrinsic value of trying. For example, if we have set ourselves the challenge to wake up at 5am in 2024 and realise that we’ve hit snooze and it’s now 5.02, we might tell ourselves that we have already missed the target and consider it a failure. In such cases, it’s important to change our perspective: a resolution is something that is achieved or not; a challenge is something that we are continually working on within our selves.

Another major hurdle that often arises is the lack of motivation. It’s easy to get carried away by the enthusiasm with which you make ambitious New Year’s resolutions, such as meditating for two hours a day or running a 5k during our lunch break. As we tackle our 2024 challenges, it’s imperative that we look at the why behind each commitment. By asking ourselves questions like, ‘how will I change after completing this challenge?’ and, more importantly, ‘why is this change meaningful to me?’ we can anchor our motivation in personal relevance.

Unrealistic expectations are a common challenge, often due to underestimating what we can achieve in a year while overestimating our daily capacity. Rather than setting an unrealistic goal, such as running a 5k every day during our lunch break if we are new to running, we should change our approach. Instead, we can aim to run 5k by the end of 2024 and break this goal down into manageable daily or weekly habits and systems. This way, what seemed unattainable on 2 January 2024 becomes an extremely realistic expectation for 31 January 2024.

Perfectionism is another significant obstacle to achieving our goals, a challenge that many of us will face in 2024. Many people who set goals struggle with perfectionism, as these two factors are often intertwined and create a sense of winning or losing. In contrast, challenges provide a path for continuous growth and development. Much like Frodo’s journey to Mordor, there are inevitably ups and downs, victories and setbacks along the way. Our path to overcoming challenges is anything but a flat, linear path; it has its own ups and downs. It doesn’t have to be flawless— it’s enough to keep the challenge in sight.

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, let’s revolutionise our approach to the usual resolutions. Instead of fixating on rigid goals, we should set ourselves challenges. This shift in perspective encourages a mindset characterised by continuous growth, resilience, and adaptability.

In The Path of Mindful Living: A 21-Day Mindfulness Companion, I lead you through a series of self-guided mindfulness exercises and show you how to bring mindfulness into your daily life. Readers of my blog can download the workbook and pullout charts for only £6.

How I’m Reading 100 Books in 2024

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Allan Johnson in creativity, habits, intention, Observations

Reading has always been more than just a pastime for me — it’s my passion and my whole world. To misquote Barbie‘s Ken: my job is books. But perhaps somewhat surprisingly, in the hustle and bustle of my day job as an English literature academic, the sheer joy of reading for pleasure has fallen by the wayside. In order to get back to the joys of simply reading for pleasure I have set myself a challenge to read 100 books in 2024.

I read a lot as it is, but as there is so much more out there that I want to consume and enjoy I am challenging myself to read a lot this year. Nearly twice as much as I read last year. And, just to be clear, the 100 books are those that I am reading for pleasure–not the many more books that I will also be reading just for work.

I’m feeling pretty confident that I can meet this challenge because I already have a lot of strategies that have always helped me read a huge amount for my job. While these tips and tricks have been helpful to me as an English academic over the years, this year I am repurposing them for my own benefit to make sure that I am reading the stuff that I want to read for pleasure this year.

Here are some tips on how you can read 100 books (or 52, or 25, or 12, or whatever!) in 2024:

Keeping a TBR List: In order to navigate all the fantastic books that you have in store for you, keeping track of your To-Be-Read (TBR) list is paramount. My strategy is to use Goodreads as a comprehensive tool to keep track of the books I want to read, am currently immersed in, and have completed. This not only simplifies the reading process, but also provides a rewarding visualisation of progress and turns the literary journey into a tangible adventure.
Multitasking the reading experience: The key to an enriching reading experience lies in variety and having several books on the go at once ensures flexibility: if I don’t like one book, there’s another waiting for me. As I take a cross-platform approach, I juggle between a printed book, a Kindle and an audiobook. This ensures that, whatever the mood or situation, I always have a literary companion at hand to transport me to other worlds.
Notes as a ritual of immersion: For a devoted bibliophile, reading goes beyond the act itself. It becomes an immersive ritual where you internalise the essence of each book. My simple note-taking system consists of underlining or highlighting key passages and then summarising the book in my Goodreads reviews to create a tangible connection with the material. It’s a practise that goes beyond just finishing a book; it’s about creating a record of what you’ve completed
Giving up the unappealing: One of the liberating facets of my reading challenge is that I allow myself the freedom to give up on a book after the first 50 pages if it doesn’t captivate me. Life is too short to force yourself through something that you don’t vibe with. This ensures that each book contributes to the pleasure of reading rather than becoming a chore.
Visibility and accountability: When you resolve to read a hundred books in a year, visibility becomes a powerful accountability tool. Platforms like Goodreads are no longer just personal logbooks, but become public statements of commitment. This visibility acts as a subtle motivator, a gentle reminder that the literary journey is shared and that milestones should be celebrated together.

For me the challenge of reading 100 books in one year is not just about sheer quantity, but about rediscovering the joy of reading for pleasure. You can track my progress and share your own reading adventures on Goodreads — a virtual place where fellow literature lovers come together to celebrate the magic of books!

Mastering 2024 with a Personal Annual Review

Posted on December 27, 2023December 16, 2023 by Allan Johnson in habits, intention, Observations, Productivity

Review and reflection are an important part of the creative process, but one that is often underestimated or completely undervalued. Having those moments where we look at the work we’ve completed and realise how we’ve changed and grown as a result, and what new opportunities or challenges present themselves to us in the future, is part of the process of constant iteration and growth.

An annual reflection is an opportunity to reconnect with our purpose and find a greater sense of clarity, recognise growth, and ensure we’re aligned with our long-term goals. It’s also about being more accepting of change, recognising how we have grown over the year, but also that we want to continue to grow in the year ahead.

Reflection encourages creative innovation, and it’s something I’ve been doing regularly in the last few weeks of December over the last few years. The tool I use to structure the questions of my annual review is what is called the PERMA Model, developed by positive psychologist Martin Seligman. This model provides a holistic framework for understanding and improving our wellbeing and focuses on five essential elements that contribute to a flourishing and truly fulfilling life.

P stands for ‘Positive Emotion’ and emphasises the importance of feeling joy, gratitude and contentment.
E is for ‘Engagement’ and encourages us to seek out activities that put us in a state of flow and immerse us deeply in the world around us.
R stands for ‘Relationships’, recognising the important role of positive social relationships and communities in our overall wellbeing.
M refers to ‘Meaning’, encouraging us to find purpose and significance in our actions and behaviours.
Finally, A represents ‘Achievement’ or ‘Accomplishment’, recognising the importance of engaging in and pursuing meaningful challenges to foster a sense of competence and growth within us.

This model emphasises the interconnectedness of all these elements, asserting that a balance between positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement leads to a more robust and inclusive sense of wellbeing.

The PERMA model is a practical guide to improving our overall life satisfaction and a tool to help us reflect on the past year and plan for the year ahead. It can serve as a framework for our personal annual review and provides a nuanced lens through which we can evaluate the different facets of our lives.

The strength of the model is that it allows us to holistically assess our situation and our progress this year, so that the annual review goes beyond simply setting goals. Instead, this approach encourages us to explore our emotional wellbeing as part of our creative process. It encourages quality social relationships and the pursuit of activities that contribute to a greater sense of purpose as you move towards your personal goal.

PERMA ensures that every element of a balanced life is brought into focus. Like any other annual review it incorporates a focus on achievements, but it doesn’t stop there, as it emphasises the importance of living in a way that aligns with with our personal values and which fosters a deep sense of purpose. Elements of personal growth such as engagement and purpose are placed centre stage and we’re asked to reflect on how we have developed and what we have learned.

PERMA can transform our personal review from a mere checklist of achievements into a powerful journey of reflection. It invites us to explore emotions, evaluate commitment, cultivate meaningful relationships, find goals and celebrate successes, encouraging a continuous and adaptive approach to our self-improvement.

To do your personal review, start by finding a comfortable, private space and take some time to make it really cosy and inviting for you. This could mean lighting a candle or pouring yourself a cup of tea or coffee, perhaps with some music playing in the background. And then sit down with a notebook and write down your answers to these PERMA questions. Trust your instincts and don’t overthink your response.

Positive Emotions (P):

What were the most joyful moments you experienced throughout the past year?
Reflecting on challenging times, how did you cultivate positive emotions to navigate difficulties?
Did you engage in activities that brought you a sense of contentment and fulfilment?
How can you incorporate more activities that elicit positive emotions into the upcoming year?

Engagement (E):

Identify the activities or projects that made you feel completely absorbed and engaged.
Were there times when you experienced a state of flow, losing track of time while working on something meaningful?
Did you pursue hobbies or interests that brought a deep sense of satisfaction and engagement?
How can you structure your daily or weekly routine to include more activities that bring a sense of engagement?

Relationships (R):

Reflect on the quality of your relationships with friends, family, and colleagues.
Were there any conflicts or challenges in your relationships that need resolution or improvement?
What actions did you take to strengthen existing relationships or cultivate new meaningful connections?
How can you prioritise and nurture your relationships in the upcoming year?

Meaning (M):

Consider the goals and values that provided a sense of purpose in the past year.
Were there moments when you questioned or reaffirmed your sense of meaning and purpose?
Reflect on activities that aligned with your personal values and contributed to a greater sense of meaning.
What new goals or areas of focus can you explore to enhance the overall meaning in your life?

Accomplishment/Achievement (A):

List your significant achievements and accomplishments over the past year.
Reflect on goals you set for yourself and assess the progress you made toward achieving them.
Were there any setbacks or obstacles that impacted your sense of achievement, and how did you overcome them?
What new goals or challenges do you want to set for yourself in the coming year?

Daily Devotionals as Catalysts for Inspiration

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Allan Johnson in Observations

As Julia Cameron’s famous work The Artist’s Way makes clear, creativity is a form of spiritual practise that we need to nurture on a daily basis. For several years now, my own creative practise has begun each morning with a meditation followed by an inspirational daily reading, which I call a secular devotional.

Lately I’ve been thinking about this because I recently bought next year’s secular devotional book, The Daily Laws, but in past years I’ve used others: The Daily Stoic, A Year to Clear, A Guide for the Advanced Soul, and A Calendar for Wisdom. I have enjoyed each of them immensely, and each brought a unique tone and mood to each day and to the year in which I read them.

In many ways, I draw on what is known in the monastic tradition as lectio divina, Latin for ‘divine reading’. This is a traditional Christian practise of reading and meditation that dates back to the early centuries of the Christian church and it was St Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine order, who formalised and popularised this practise in a monastic setting. Lectio divina was then further developed and refined by other Christian mystics and theologians throughout the Middle Ages.

There are break down the four main components of lectio divina:

lectio or reading. This step is about reading a passage of text slowly and carefully, not being in a hurry or trying to get too intellectual, but consciously engaging with every word in every moment of the text.
meditatio or meditation. After the initial reading, we meditate on the words or phrases that stood out to us, reflecting on the meaning of those words and allowing them to resonate with us.
oratio or prayer. While traditional lectio divina draws upon prayer to divinity, in a secular lectio practise we can use the third stage to connect with our own deepest inner self, allowing this part of our self to resonate with the reading.
contemplatio or contemplation. Finally in this moment of quiet receptivity we allow any thoughts that might arise from within us to draw our attention to the most meaningful aspects of the reading and the purpose that the reading can have in our own live.

Secular lectio isn’t meant to be rigid or formulaic. Rather, it’s meant to be a flexible and personalised approach to engaging in short readings that can serve as inspiration for the day. And although the practise is traditionally associated with monastic life, it has also gained popularity outside of monastic communities and is now embraced within secular contexts as well. Ultimately, lectio is about the transformative power of reading and the inspiration that it can bring.

To bring secular lectio into our own creative practise, the text we choose must resonate with our own creative journey and be able to foster a deeper connection with one’s thoughts, ideas, and artistic processes. And perhaps most importantly, it invites us to create stillness and reflection in our creative practise. This will look different for everyone and while I have offered some recommendations above of secular devotional that have positively impacted me and my creative practise, there are also many others that can be discovered and explore.

We might then also think about extending our secular lectio with a practise of journal writing, perhaps using Cameron’s idea of morning pages as a way of doing this.

Through this daily secular devotional practise, we create a heightened awareness and presence, cultivating mindfulness and ultimately enhancing our ability to be fully present in our creative work. As I have found over the years, this leads to greater inspiration and imagination and ultimately strengthens our creative intuition by developing a deeper understanding of our own artistic voice and direction.

In the coming year, we all have the opportunity to better understand the relationship between creativity and spirituality and to utilise the opportunity that a daily devotional practise provides to create consistent inspiration for our creative work. In this way, we can explore the transformative power of the rhythms of creative live and continue to fill the well of inspiration.

Using Rest and Creative Cycles to Ensure a Fulfilling Year Ahead

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Allan Johnson in gratitude, Observations, wellbeing

As winter wraps London in its chilly embrace, we are grappling with freezing temperatures and the prospect of snow. I am originally from northeastern Ohio where subfreezing temperatures and deep snow are a standard feature from November through February, and something about the bracing winds today remind me of home. Like many others, it is at this time of year that I turn inwards, seeking a quieter, more contemplative rhythm to my life and creative work.

In a world where faster and more efficient results are constantly demanded, we as creative people are really seriously at risk of overextending ourselves, and there is a delicate dance between living up to the expectations of hustle culture and avoiding creative burnout. The ubiquitous messages around us emphasise the need for constant productivity, but it’s important to recognise that the wellspring of creativity isn’t bottomless. In order to be consistently creative, we must learn to find a balance between hard work and necessary rest. So strong is the social messaging around ‘speed’, ‘productivity’, and ‘effectivity’, that ‘rest’ itself has become something of a bad word and often widely misunderstood.

One of the most important lessons for creatives is to understand the power of cycles — cycles of work and rest. Sometimes these things are out of our control. For example, we might have deadlines at certain times of the year that we need to schedule in order to finish our work, or we might get sick, or other important commitments might come up that force us to not devote ourselves to our creative work as fully as we would like.

But while there are definitely parts of the cycle that are out of our control, there are other parts that we can shape, and the winter season, as we approach the new year, is an opportunity for us as creatives to look inwards for a little retreat, however that may look for us. The winter season is an ideal time for a creative retreat, an opportunity to recharge and set the course for the year ahead.

In my own routine, I’ve learnt to appreciate the practise of an annual review in the last weeks of December (an upcoming newsletter will share my annual review process). It’s about reflecting on the past year, recognising achievements, learning from challenges, and thinking about how these experiences will contribute to personal development in the coming year. A period of rest is when we’re not creating new content or coming up with our big new ideas, but that doesn’t mean that periods of rest are unfruitful; it is an important and thoughtful aspect of the creative process.

I’m not saying that December is the month in which we simply switch off. Some of us may have the opportunity to take a creative sabbatical, which is fantastic, but there are other ways we can find this creative calm within the year. One of the best strategies I’ve put into play is the concept of planned rest on the weekends. Often we push ourselves so hard during the working week that we just slump at the weekend, binge watching TV and movies, thinking that this will relax and recharge us, but what happens is that we feel the same on Sunday night as we did the Sunday night before. What if, instead, we start the weekend with an affirmation for the activities we’re going to do to unwind and recharge, such as a long hike or a meditation class or a museum visit. Instead of just letting our weekends fall before us, we can start to give our weekends some shape, by introducing forms of intentional calm that we know will recharge our batteries and leave us ready for the week ahead.

Another way we can implement cycles for creative occupations is by introducing rituals into our lives. I’ve have lots of rituals—seasonal rituals, monthly rituals, daily rituals—that give shape and form to my creative work and practises. So during this time of calm and stillness, how about we start each morning with a very simple ritual of simply lighting a candle. We don’t need to think too much about it; this routine and discipline will nourish us. We oftentimes incorrectly think that rest and regeneration is about letting go of all discipline. It’s not. We find strength and resilience through the patterns that we create and show up for but these patterns don’t need to be running a marathon every day. These restorative and empowering rituals can be something as simple as lighting a candle every morning

Another practical tool for sustainable creativity, is something known as time blocking. When we look at our to-do list, we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of things we have to do. But rather than letting ourselves fall into that feeling of overwhelm and despair we can start time blocking our diary. For example, if there are three small tasks that might take 20 minutes each to complete, we can group them together in the next one hour block in our diary. We don’t have to think about them in the meantime. So it’s not about giving up the tasks we have to do. It’s about creating routines, habits, and patterns that allow us to find the strength we need in our hectic lives to constantly be able to fill the well and show ourselves as creative professionals.

Two really great books that talk more about the importance of rest are Rest: Why You Get more Done When Your Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity by Saundra Dalton-Smith. But even more importantly, at this time of year I would encourage you to simple read a book that you enjoy! A funny one, romantic one, silly one, adventurous one. Whatever it is that feels like comfort and relaxation to you.

As we approach 2024, we can begin to embrace the cyclical nature of creativity. Knowing that as creatives we can’t work at full steam all year round, we need to find opportunities to rest, recover, and reflect. This doesn’t mean that we give up our work completely, but that we empower ourselves with forms of intentional rest. Ultimately this creates a more sustainable and fulfilling creative life for ourselves so that we’re able to show up and continue to produce as creatives, finding value and meaning in the process.