Once upon a time, I was hospitalized for postpartum depression. During my stay in the psych ward, I attended three group sessions with three different therapists. (This is what happens when you stay over the weekend). All three therapists insisted on talking about MOMENTUM.
On the subject of momentum, each therapist preached that if we sit in a chair all the time, it is really difficult to summon the energy to get off of the chair. But if you get off of the chair once, the second time is easier. And if you keep getting off the damn chair, you build up momentum until it takes practically no effort to get up at all.
At the time, this sounded like horse shit.
Then again, when I was in the murky depths of depression, all the advice I received about my recovery sounded like horse shit.
But I digress.
About a month after my release from the hospital, I started realizing that maybe the therapists knew a thing or two about momentum. I took my baby on walks; then I took her to the mall; then I joined a mommy and me class; and before I knew it, I was taking my daughter to museums and botanical gardens and gasp, making mom friends. The more I went out with my baby, the easier it was until it became second nature.
Fast forward to 2020. Remember 2020? Yeah, me too. Those first shutdowns did a number on my momentum. And by “did a number,” I mean “dialed it back to zero and broke off the knob.” I lost all my momentum. Actually, that’s an exaggeration. I did keep writing and I managed to finish the first draft of a fantasy novel by the end of May 2020. But otherwise, I was in survival mode. I took a walk in the morning, let my husband take over the cooking, and fell into a deep rut. By July 2020, I was depressed and anxious. I went back on Zoloft but knew from my experience with postpartum depression that I needed to rebuild my momentum.
This called for some projects.
Oh my god, I love projects. When I tackle projects, I want to do more projects; and doing one project gives me the energy for five more. In October 2020, I created The Distance Learning Activity Book For Parents Just Barely Holding On To Their Last Shred Of Sanity. That project saved me. That’s why as I headed into 2021, I decided to embrace ALL THE PROJECTS and focus on MOMENTUM for an entire year.
I wrote all about it right here.
How did it go? Well, as I detail below, most of the projects I picked were technically a bust but I rebuilt my momentum and then some. So though most of the individual projects were an “F,” my 2021 Momentum Project was an effervescent success. Let’s look at the individual projects (because I crave closure, damnit):
My Soda Fast: [insert laugh track] I am in a fully committed relationship with Coke Zero.I abandoned this project with zest.
Blog every weekday: This last through March and then I went on a loooooong blogging hiatus.
Room Mom Novel: I worked on this all year and I am ready to send my first novel to an editor in January 2022 – woot woot!
Learn French: I did not make it through as many Duolingo lessons as I intended, but I practiced nearly every day and slowly but surely, I’m learning French.
Roller skating, tap dancing, playing the piano – no, no, no
Post on IG daily – not even close.
Walk an average of 12,000 steps a day: I stopped keeping track BUT I got back into Hot Yoga with a vengeance. I also went on some hikes and walked an ass shit ton.
Weekly tarot card reading: I did this for a few months and then lost interest. Probably because I put my deck in a drawer and forgot about it. Oops.
Read 100 books for myself – I’d like to write another post about the books I read in 2021. I definitely read 100+ books this year but that includes the Captain Underpants series with Julian. I’m going to try this one again in 2022.
25 craft projects: I did plenty of crochet and knitting and had a fling with punch needle but I stopped keeping track. And did not seek as much variety as I initially hoped.
100 new recipes: I doubt I hit this number BUT I tried a ton of new recipes and new cookbooks and seriously leveled up my cooking game.
Go down 100 slides: I totally forgot about this! But I went down a huge slide at an indoor playground yesterday, so there’s that.
Visit 50 different places: maybe? the problem here is that I kept track of my goals on paper, but the paper got messy, and I got annoyed and threw it out. Note to self: track goals on my computer as well!
French braid my hair 100 times: no, but I’m getting better and damnit, I am going to plug away at this project.
Okay, so that’s the scoop on my 2021 projects. Like I said, more Fs than As (though the work I did on the room mom novel was AMAZING). But the Fs do not matter because Courtney got her momentum back. I’ll explain more in my next blog post. (and yes! there will be another blog post! Because momentum!)