January 1, 2024

Make a list of everything you are looking forward to in 2024.

Laura Waltje
January 01, 2024

Hello friends,

I’m so excited for you to join me again this year in a daily writing practice.

I’m very proud of myself for sending a writing prompt almost every day last year. Okay, I missed about 2 months in total of days over the course of the year, but I am still really proud of myself. A theme all of last year was my attempts to be more kind and compassionate with myself and remembering that a small setback is not a failure and even a failure is a necessary part of any growth process. I’m still working on it, but it gets a bit easier every day.

So one of my resolutions again this year is to keep sending out my prompts and to be more consistent this year with actually writing my own responses and sharing them with you.

If you have followed along since last year, a lot of these prompts may be familiar. I am repeating a lot of them. I think annual and cyclical reflection is really valuable and useful. Seeing how your answers have changed, or haven’t, from one year to the next can be really insightful. (And did you know you don’t have to reinvent the wheel? You are actually allowed to build off of your previous work?! Amazing.)

My daily writing prompts will serve to help us self-reflect and discover what is truly important to us:
— What are our values?
— What are our ideal lives?
— How well is where we are now aligned with those goals?

Each day, I will send out a writing prompt that will help us reflect. I hope my prompts will help us feel self-compassion and gain self-knowledge. I hope they will inspire and catalyze growth. Take 5-15 minutes and write about

Make a list of everything you are looking forward to in 2024.

Set yourself a timer. Anywhere from 5-15 minutes will do. Try to write for the full time. (If you don't know what to write, you can simply write "I don't know what I want to say" until something bubbles up. I promise you something will.) If you have a journal you like to write in, write there. For many people, the idea of a reader makes writing easier. If you'd like, feel free to write your daily journal as a reply back to this email.

There are so many things I am excited for in 2024. 2023 was a year of a lot of changes, a great deal of healing, and a lot of improvement in my life, and I am excited to build on those and see where these opportunities that have now opened will take me.

I went to a Christmas service with my parents this year and the pastor shared a quote that stuck with me. To paraphrase, “Every action you take is motivated either by fear or by love.” I am so tired of acting out of fear, or even worse, not acting at all because of fear. I want to move more towards love, towards vulnerability, and towards courage. I’m excited to feel my emotions, I’m excited to ask for more help. I’m also terrified, but I’m excited.

I’m excited to continue to build this beautiful living space and community with my husband and our community.

I’m excited for the Art Farm retreat and planning out the upcoming year in terms of crystalizing our mission and vision and moving towards becoming an official 501c3 nonprofit.

I’m excited to attend the AWP conference with one of my best friends.

I’m excited to discover more of what Chicago has to offer in terms of lectures and poetry readings and exhibitions and other events around the city. I want to try to attend at least one a month if not one every week.

I’m excited to celebrate my grandmother’s 90th birthday.

I’m excited to finally have my own garden to plant in. I’m looking forward to growing and sharing my own food.

I’m excited to continue to invest in my health. Over the course of the last year, I learned how to mostly manage my RA, with the help and support of my husband and our parents (especially his parents who really inspired us to and supported us with investing in our health). We’ve both gotten so much healthier over the last few months. Usually I am in pain the full week before my injection, but the last two months it crept up to me. I’m so excited to keep seeing how our life continues to improve and I feel so grateful for where we are now and all of the help we’ve received getting here.

I’m also going to share little updates about the books I’m reading and what I’ve been thinking about. Right now, I’ve been reading Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. I’ve listened to her TED talks and some interviews with her, but this is the first book I’ve read by her. I’ll share more quotes and thoughts about it in the upcoming days. What are you reading right now? Let me know if you are interested in doing a little book club or book club corner with me.

Thank you again for joining this journey with me! I can’t wait to see where this year takes us.

Your friend,

Laura