New Year, New Mindset

Written by Thiele and a little bit of Molly...

It’s the start of a new year, and the chatter of resolutions fills the air. January is a common time for reflection, a reminder that time goes on, and a push to evaluate the way we are living. Typically, the year starts out strong with our resolutions top of mind. But that mindset is not always sustainable… for multiple reasons. Often, it's because we let setbacks define entire chapters of our year, losing sight of our intentions when things don't go as planned.

We have all been there… or we have seen it happen… March rolls around, we get hit with a series of unfortunate events, and suddenly, we throw a label at it - “worst month ever.” It was the month when we had a virus, we missed out on a visit to see friends, we had an unexpected and expensive house project, and we didn’t hit our reading goal. We just want April 1st to roll around so that we can start fresh.

But when we label an entire period of time as "bad," we risk overlooking everything else that happened during it. Was it truly a “bad” day, month, or year? Or did we simply experience some challenging moments? I think, in most cases, it is the latter. I am pretty sure that if we read between the lines (or, in this case, this series of unfortunate events), we would find lots of beautiful moments that happened too.

I was reminded of this when Molly told me about a fundraiser that she recently attended for a young girl who has cancer. For the sake of the story, we will call her Sarah. While she was there, she spoke with Sarah’s dad, who told Molly how optimistic Sarah remains despite living most of her year in the hospital, receiving treatment. At the time of the fundraiser, the family had just celebrated Sarah’s birthday in the hospital, trying their best to make it feel as “normal” as possible. Her dad explained that when everyone left, post-celebration, Sarah looked at her dad and said, “That was the best birthday I have ever had.” For her, the success of the day was not about her environment or her health, it was about the people surrounding her and how they made her feel.

Sarah's story is a beautiful reminder of just how powerful our perception can be. And without inviting toxic positivity into our lives (because acknowledging the tough moments and feeling the associated emotions is good and healthy), this story is a reminder that what we choose to focus on is what truly matters.

So, this year, as you write your resolutions or craft your vision board, I invite you to find balance between chasing your goals and finding the good in the outcomes, even if they don’t match your original plans. And here's where our art practice can actually teach us something profound: we can experience this on our tiles. We all know that art rarely goes to plan, but that doesn’t mean that the result has no value. Narrow your focus to the part of the tile that makes you proud. And if you can do this successfully on a small scale (e.g. a 3.5” square tile), you can bring that mindset to the rest of your life.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope it is filled with lots of beauty (on and off your tiles)!