Taking a Depth Year

 Photo by Syd Wachs

As 2019  heads toward it's end and 2020 gets ready to begin, my friends who participate in One Little Word have been writing about what's next for them.   What word will they choose, what word will choose them?

For quite a few of them their word next year will be DEPTH.  This article  at Raptitude.com was shared on the message board and it sparked a lot of thought for me.

It begins like this:

"I keep imagining a tradition I’d like to invent. After you’re established in your career, and you have some neat stuff in your house, you take a whole year in which you don’t start anything new or acquire any new possessions you don’t need.

No new hobbies, equipment, games, or books are allowed during this year. Instead, you have to find the value in what you already own or what you’ve already started."

That aligns with my husband's determination that by the beginning of July we will go through every box currently cluttering up the house and barn.  We will finally know what we have, what can be tossed or sold or completed!  He's pretty insistent and I'm glad.  I really do need the threat of dealing with my shit or watching as it gets tossed into a dumpster.  I mean, really.  Some of those boxes (mine and his) haven't been opened in 20 years and it's more than time to deal with the clutter and not having stuff hanging over our heads.

The article goes on to say that this new way of being would teach a person:

"...to live without regular doses of the little high we get when we start something new. If we indulge in it too often, we can develop a sort of “sweet tooth” for the feeling of newness itself. When newness is always available, it’s easier to seek more of it than to actually engage with ..." already owned craft supplies, unfinished art projects, fill in the blank from your own life.

When I read that I had an "ah ha" moment!  I love signing up for online workshops ~ art & personal growth are my favorites.  They are designed to let a person work at their own pace and really master the techniques.  They often go into depth and you get more than you would watching a youtube video (fun as many of those are).  They offer me the chance to learn and master something new!

But before I complete one course, I am often tempted to sign up for another one.  This happened last Autumn.  Two techniques I really wanted to master, two teachers I really enjoy, but I didn't allow enough time for either one.  Both classes are still unfinished.  

The idea of a "gap year" between high school and college has always seemed a great idea.  My youngest did this and the growth was life changing.  A friend's son likes the idea of a gap year between middle school and high school.  After I read this article from the director of The Stanford Center for Longevity, I thought maybe he has a point.  So this new idea of a "depth year," where I spend time on what I already own, know, want to master, sounds like a perfect blending of going deeper and expanding what a productive long life looks like.