Post-it Notes helped me get a Swiss watch
On bouncing back from a no-good, very bad year
This post is part of the Soaring Twenties monthly Symposium, where writers, artists, poets, and filmmakers gather together to create around one theme. This month’s theme is “Resolution.”
Honestly, I do not like the topic of resolutions to write about for a Symposium. I feel pulled into commenting that resolutions are good or bad, and I don’t really have a strong opinion. Resolutions often get a bad rap perhaps because people do them wrong, ignoring themselves to noncommittally chase an ill-defined perfection.
Despite all that, I did something like resolutions in 2018.
Between Christmas and New Year’s 2018, I was home alone watching Goldeneye. I wasn’t feeling great about the year behind me, and dreading the one ahead. I had enjoyed Goldeneye before, but now it felt like a hollow reminder of the rut I made for myself in the past year and the grim future ahead if I didn’t change fast.
I started thinking about the Bond watch in Goldeneye. An Omega Seamaster 300M, for sale at the time for maybe $2,000. I was drawn to the deep blue dial, a truly waterproof design, the patina on the dial markers, and that obnoxious helium release valve on the left. I wasn’t sure why I would ever need one, but it looked cool and I wanted to have it. To say there was provenance with James Bond feels silly, but it has worked to help sell Omegas ever since.
As Pierce Brosnan drove a tank through St. Petersburg, I wondered if a fresh set of goals, like owning a Seamaster, would help me plan for a better new year. I found a pad of Post-it Notes1 and wrote down a series of goals in the context of “what would make me happy ten years from now if today me did them?” Post-it Note number one was “Own an Omega Seamaster 300M.”
But that didn’t seem right. A new watch in my old situation would not change my situation. Such a purchase also felt incredibly impractical given the year I just had and the person I was.
Realizing that simply buying a watch wouldn’t fix much, I shifted my thinking: how could I become the kind of person who would own a Swiss watch like an Omega Seamaster? Post-it Note 2 read “pay off student loans.” Post-it Notes 3 and 4 covered emergency funding and investment accounts. More and more objectives emerged that shaped the person I would want to become to avoid repeating the past year again and again. The watch became an afterthought as this wider vision became more exciting and interesting.
After maybe 40 Post-it Notes, I realized the disappointments from the prior year did not jeopardize accomplishing anything on my list. I was feeling down over aspects of my life that would not matter even in the intermediate term.
While I felt empowered by the steer I found, I still felt heavy from the prior year.
I took out a piece of blank paper and started writing about how stupid the past year was. The people, the assignments, the disappointments, the struggles…I spared no white space at all on the page. I needed to get these all out of my head and onto the page.
After 20 minutes of writing, I took the piece of paper and lit it on fire in my driveway2. I felt freer for the effort, watching the ink and paper I’d thrown all my shade at wither into ash.
January 2, I wanted to pick a Post-it Note I could start immediately.
I couldn’t afford an Omega, but I saw deep in the rotation “sign up for an improv class.” It was something I’d always wanted to do, but never thought to actually execute. I signed up for ten weeks that day at a studio in the neighborhood. It was just what I needed to get out of the rut I was in, and see myself and interactions with others in a different light.
I’m thankful I can tell Thomas Bevan when I hate the Symposium topics.
I don’t know that I would call this making resolutions, but it started with a deep assessment of where I was and where I thought I needed to go. Making actionable choices anchored in pleasing my future self, freed from the angst of a down year, and picking something immediately actionable helped more than resolutions.
I’m four years away from “ten-years-from-now” me just being me. I opted for a different Omega years later, and a handful of those goals have shifted in different directions, but overall that once-overwhelming rut is now a distant memory.
In short, some thoughtful reflection helped calibrate my goals towards small, immediate action that accumulated into results over the long term. This approach has been more impactful than lofty resolutions could ever be.
Post-it Notes were inspired by the Life Audit Post by Ximena Vengoechea.
This was done with a lot of care. Be safe out there.
I like the approach. But now I am wondering how improv classes would get you closer to being the person who owns the James Bond watch… although, now that I think about it, had you become an actor with the classes, you could be the new Pierce Brosnan.
It was interesting how this evolved. As an aside, I can’t help but wonder how much that watch sells for now.