This year I’m going to run another experimental group with people who want to do Groundhog Day Resolutions with me and other committed folks! For a refresher, Groundhog Day Resolutions (aka GHDR) is a yearly planning ritual with an easy-to-remember schedule. It starts on February 2nd and ends on December 12. There’s a few things I like about this:

1. Accounts for Busy Holiday Season – Traditional New Year Resolutions were inconveniently-timed; who is ready to make big year decisions on January 1st? Not me! I need at least a month to close-out the year and recover from the holiday season. I use January 1 to start thinking about the year to come. Likewise, the period ends

2. Ease of Knowing When to Review – Using the “double day” MONTH/DAY monthly pattern made it easier to remember when to reflect on my goals, as regular reflection is necessary to keep on-track with any long-term goal.

3. Ease of Synchronizing with Others – As a bonus, having an easy-to-remember system for review days makes it possible collaborate with others who also want to make a commitment to self-improvement or other goals for the year. We are stronger together!

The last time we did this was all the way back in 2016 using (I think) the sunsetted Google+ service. I’m going to do it again this year by hosting it in two places:

• On my Medium account as a publication-based group for general where I’ll post my own GHDR posts to help seed discussion. The advantage of using Medium is relative ease of posting comments and of course discoverability.

• In the DS|CAFE Community Discord in the new #ghdr-mastermind forum for more day-to-day interaction and encouragement. Joining information

It’s been 18 years of Groundhog Day Resolutions for me, and I think I have a better handle on what it’s actually been good for: commitment to finding my personal truths . As a result, I know myself much better and why I have so much difficulty achieving my goals. While my insights are specific to me, I think there are common elements that might be resonant with others who need to find meaning and fulfillment in their work to feel motivated. This is a topic I hope to explore further with everyone.

More Information

To get ready for this group, I’ve updated several pages on digital garden website at dsriseah.com:

A summary of the starting concerns for every Groundhog Day Resolutions kickoff post from 2007 to 2024. This has been useful for seeing the overall patterns of my GHDR ritual, and it may be inspiring.
» Index of All GHDR Posts

A more holistic description of GHDR and its philosophy. Originally, GHDR was more of a ritual designed to just help me remember when to do a monthly review, but enough time has passed for me to see is deeper values (for me, anyway).
» What is Groundhog Day Resolutions?

Updates to Come!

I’ll report more on the setup of the various support areas. We already have a few verbal commitments in the Community Forum for participation, so I’m excited to see how this plays out!