2024 Creative Goals

Reflecting on a year of creative magic and setting intentions for the new year ✨

Happy new years friends! I wanted to share some reflections on my 2023 wins, intentions for the next year, and systems that have worked for me to bring my big creative goals to life. 

I hope some of these tips can be helpful for you and would love to hear what you are dreaming up for this year!

2023 Reflections

This year, as I looked back on my list from 2023, here are some things I’m especially proud of:

• Work

  • I published a coloring book about clean energy and sold 1,000 copies!

  • I grew my newsletter to 3K subscribers from scratch (hi friends!). 

  • I grew my Twitter to 16K from 10K. 

  • I taught climate art workshops at Harvard, NYU, and American University.

  • I had incredible clients like the Department of Energy, Scale Microgrid, Activate, Climate Vine, DER Task Force, and Clean Path NY. 

  • I went to TED Countdown in Detroit.

    

• Health: 

  • I swam 2x/week the entire year. I barely missed a single day.

  • I meditated every night before bed.

  • I did morning pages almost every day.

  • I didn’t drink alcohol (4 years now!).

  • I finished physical therapy for my wrist and foot so now I can do yoga/rock climbing.

  • I moved to a quiet street in Park Slope and live a block from the park.

    

• Creative:

  • I went to a pottery class. 

  • I learned Procreate to illustrate the coloring book.

  • I took a cartoon class. 

  • I designed my favorite dress and wore it all summer (fruit dress).

  • I co-hosted Meditate and Paint Workshops.

I think it’s always important to remember when we see people sharing shiny things on social media that there is so much more happening behind the screen. I tried to write a short paragraph about that but decided to scrap it because it could be a whole essay. For now, let me just say there are plenty of things I feel I didn’t accomplish and days that weren’t as shiny as that glowing list above. 

One of my least accomplished goals was I wanted to make art 2x/week on top of my client work. Y’all, looking back on the year I barely made any art for pleasure. This one shocked me because I supported myself as a full time artist, yet did not actually create THAT many watercolors. Especially compared to my first year (hello, making 100 paintings in 100 days 😳). 

I did develop a new art style though- a coloring book. I made 65+ illustrations for that. It’s just a different form of art than I expected and I feel like I discounted it as a result. 

This year I am giving myself permission to expand what art means to me. I want to take a variety of art classes and use different mediums to express my climate art. For example, I am learning how to make videos of me creating my art and now I’m viewing the video itself as a form of art. 

Systems I use to Meet my Goals

• I live by my calendar. I blocked Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10-11:30am for swimming. And I went every week. It made it easy to not schedule calls during that time and truly plan my day around that priority. 

  • This year, I am planning to work out at the gym 2 more times a week so I blocked those times. 

  • I also blocked out Wednesdays for coworking so I don’t schedule calls most of the day. If you’re in NY and want to cowork on a Wednesday, feel free to message me! 

• Consistency is key. I had a goal to grow this newsletter to 3K subscribers from scratch. I broke that larger goal into an action item- which was to publish a newsletter every week. I published 45 newsletters last year! 

• Pick key 2-3 key tasks for the day. Every morning I journal for 3 pages and decide the highest priority tasks.

• Done is better than perfect. This is a motto I have had for ages. I never think my art is perfect or a newsletter is perfect, I just focus on making sure I am continually getting a bit better each time.

• Create a 30 day challenge. I’m kicking off one of these right now by making art everyday for 30 days! Follow along here. If you want to do your own tell me about it!

I’m using Wendy MacNaughton’s newsletter daily for prompts of what to draw! They are very different than my usual style.

I have to say that 2023 was a year I felt very aligned with my values and I am incredibly proud of the work it has taken to get here!

2024 intentions

For 2024 I have a million goals of course. I also am choosing a word and a sentence to have as a theme. Word: Courage. Sentence: I want to live a more adventurous life.

• Work

  • I want to publish another coloring book. This book will be about food systems (which means I need to simultaneously learn about food systems 😅). I started a new google sheet with resources if you want to add any here or know folks that would be up for chatting!

  • I wrote a list of assorted social media metrics, like growing my Instagram to 50K. I’ve never focused that much on Instagram but am excited about learning how to make beautiful Reels this year. Send tips and follow along @mindfulnicole!

  • Go to SF, LA, and Europe for work- holler if you need a speaker/art workshop.

  • Work with kids/schools.

• Health: 

  • Maintain health goals from last year plus add 2x/week strength training and 1x/week stretching

• Creative:

  • Take 1-2 art classes a month (portrait class, printmaking, cartoon, en plein air, oil, acrylic, pottery). 

  • Learn Spanish.

  • Sing and dance more.

  • Cowork weekly.

  • Read 2 books a month.

Ok that’s enough about me! What are some of your creative goals this year? What is a word or sentence that you might try to embody next year? Shoot me an email I’d love to hear!

Ways to support me:

• Buy my coloring book! I love seeing that people got the book for the holidays! Send me pics.

  

• Buy yourself something from my shop- my book, a mug, a onesie, a print.

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• I’m open for commissions. I help climate organizations simplify their complicated messaging into visuals anyone can understand.

  

• I host climate art workshops!