New Year's Vision art project

For this week's art project, we focused on creating a vision for what we want to accomplish in 2013.  To get our creative juices flowing and to break through any limitations we impose on ourselves, we used a couple of exercises from the book, Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith.

NOTE:  This is not conference-endorsed literature.

I find New Year's resolutions to be very restrictive.  I often resolve NOT to do something.  Last year, I resolved NOT to eat sugar.  One year, I resolved NOT to spend more than $50 a month on-line shopping.  I have nothing against these sorts of resolutions.  But for 2013, I want to move past what NOT to do and move towards bigger dreams.  In some programs, they refer to these positive actions as "top lines" or "outer circle" behaviors.  So this week's exercise was about thinking big in envisioning a life-changing 2013.

The exercises I used from Wreck This Journal (and yes, I bought multiple copies to protect copyright) included:

• rub this page with dirt
• scribble this page wildly, violently, with reckless abandon
• poke holes in this page using a pencil
• tear strips out of this page - Rip it up!

I also came up with my own "Wreck This Journal" type of exercise.  I printed out a very simple mandala:

And provided the instructions to:  "Intentionally color outside the lines."

Interestingly enough, that latter exercise, coloring outside the lines, was impossible for at least one member of our group.

But these exercises helped me to break through expectations and other people's rules to help me to envision what I want for myself.  I hope it did the same for the other members of the group.

Finally, I provided a table to write out some visions.

Not only was there space to commit to some actions to take towards our specific visions in 2013, but also space to acknowledge steps we already took in 2012 towards that vision.  That column, acknowledging progress we've already made, was very powerful for me and I filled that column up the most.

If you'd like to break through some of your own limitations, I highly recommend Wreck This Journal, though again, it is NOT specific to 12-step nor endorsed by any 12-step program.

WARNING:  Although there are four different appearing covers with the same title, "Wreck This Journal," they all contain the same material.  So if you purchase this item, select the cover you like best.  But unless you want to repeat all of the same exercises, do NOT order all four, as the content is identical in each.


What are YOUR visions for 2013?