Will we still be in a pandemic by this time next year? WHO KNOWS! But I’m in a new city, trying for a new career, so things are full speed ahead for me whether it makes sense in the world or not.
- Grow my Los Angeles community. It’s a cliche, but the entertainment industry truly is all about who you know, so a big goal of mine this year is to know more people, and have more people know me. There’s a few ways I plan to tackle this, from asking old contacts to coffee now that I’m in town, asking for new people I should meet and getting coffee with THEM, attending events and film festivals, and maybe even making my own new project to take out to festivals? We shall see! But the ultimate goal is friends and community.
- Write 2 new original pilots. I learned a LOT from last year’s big year o’ submitting to screenplay contests. I’ll be submitting to some more now that I’ve retooled my existing samples, but I need to get into the habit of developing new ones as well.
- Quit 2 of my jobs. I’ve been hoarding jobs and side hustles for over three years now after a series of losses of income through no fault of my own (I talked about this a bit here). Diversifying my income makes sense, and made a LOT of sense when I started hoarding, but it’s no longer sustainable and I definitely wasn’t being strategic about what kinds of jobs I was hoarding as long as they paid and someone wanted to hire me. But it’s officially not sustainable anymore because outside of heavy holiday months I struggled last year to take two full days off a month (and no, that’s not in addition to weekends), which doesn’t leave a lot of time to rest, let alone write and expand my community per resolutions 1 & 2. I’m also conscious of the fact that while I have absolutely gotten so much out of all my jobs, the actual financial security that comes from them is pretty negligible because I just said yes to everything fairly indiscriminately. I’m staying vague about which jobs because ideally I quit all of them in service of joining a TV writer’s room, and also because I’m trying to just stay open to the whims of the universe
- Save $5k. This will be my most ambitious savings goal yet, but especially since I’ve got a wedding coming up in October (a wedding for me!) and I’m quitting a few jobs, my income is gonna start being a little unpredictable again and I need to be prepared for that. This will mean tightening the belt a bit, but will also hopefully future-proof me so that I have options for whatever happens next rather than instant abject panic.
- Spend my energy better and more strategically. This is part of the quitting some jobs resolution, but it’s more than that. I have also been a hoarder of projects and leadership positions within them leading to a ton of unpaid, overworked responsibility. Also harkening back to last year’s resolution of developing non-monetizable habits, I have to remember it’s ok to just enjoy things without them becoming labor. It’s why when Christine and I wrap up Burn, Noticed (April for recording, July for posting/promoting!) we aren’t doing a new weekly TV recap podcast, because as much as I like talking about TV with her, having to schedule those recordings and then edit them and promote them is so much work that we aren’t getting paid to do. I can just… talk to Christine about TV if I want. I have been feeling truly so burnt out all of 2021 and it’s because of long-standing commitments I made to do things for the sake of being busy and FOMO. If I’m going to commit to something in 2022, long OR short term, it’s going to be because it’s worth it for my career aspirations, for the money, or because I genuinely believe in it and am excited to do it. The first two considerations take precedent though. Otherwise…
- Take 3 full days off a month. Adding an extra day from last year’s goal! Not a significant change perhaps, especially when again, it’s not in addition to weekends, it’s including weekends, but realistically, with Burn, Noticed still going until at least April for which we need to maintain a pretty constant weekly recording schedule, with Breaking Out of Breaking In often needing to happen on weekends in order to facilitate guest schedules, and with my thesis advising commitments being a Saturday-Saturday schedule, I can’t commit to more than this. I can strive for more than three days off a month, but the bare minimum is three. And once Burn, Noticed is over in July, that will instantly clear four days a month or more from a nonnegotiable work commitment.
- Take 3 trips with Quinn unrelated to our wedding/honeymoon. Now that we have a car again, we have far fewer excuses to stay in our apartment doing nothing. For Quinn’s birthday in November 2021 we took a very quick weekend trip up to Ojai and Ventura and Santa Barbara and it was wall to wall great, so we both want to do more of that, even if we can’t take full multi-night vacations quite yet (especially when a lot of vacation time will go into our wedding/honeymoon in the fall).
- Get active at least three times a week. I have free gym access literally down the block now. Get it together, Castellini.
- Incorporate healthier meals into meal planning. Since our long stay in Colorado last year, Quinn and I have significantly streamlined meal planning, grocery shopping, and reducing ordering in, but many of our go-to meals are still a little heavy on cheese or carbs or calories in general. This resolution is a dedication to adding more than one salad day to the weekly rotation with enough variety we don’t get bored or too hungry later.
- Embrace what’s next rather than what if. This new mantra was the subject of a blog last month if you want a deep dive, but it’s a big focus of mine that goes hand in hand with spending my energy more strategically. I can’t keep up with the near constant breakdowns and existential crises, and I don’t want to. This isn’t a guarantee of or expectation of a particular brand of success in 2022, but it’s a commitment to seeking opportunity rather than wallowing in failure in whatever form is presented to me that feels aligned with my overall goals.
Here’s to a healthier, happier, and more intentional 2022, everyone. What are YOUR resolutions this year? Tell me in the comments!
