Did we pass or fail our 2023 commitments?

Februrary 21, 2024 | By Alex & Maya

Go with us on a bit of looksey-backsey at this time last year. February 2023.

Let us paint the scene. There we all were, sitting in our little Zoom boxes, inspired by our vision board workshops, Christina, Monica, Maya, and Alex, trying to synthesize on a shared Google document our top 10 commitments to focus on as Luna for the year of 2023. What was supposed to be a fresh, fresh, fresh start…

So there we were, looking at our newly launched Studio Luna website, our freshy fresh values, and our capacity, and we felt like we had some hot fire commitments that we could DEFINITELY bite off and swallow all in a year's time, right? I mean, one of them is pretty direct: Staying Alive. Automatic check—- right? 

Well. It turns out– it is not that cut and dry. 

Let’s flash forward to today, February 2024. Again, albeit a few weeks later than last year, we met to think about our new set of commitments to share with each other and you. So we pulled up our second newsletter to look at what we shared in 2023. As we started reading through, it occurred to us that instead of creating a new set, we should start by assessing what we paid attention to, what we accomplished, and what we didn’t even touch with a 10-foot pole. 

So we haven’t done that as of this sentence in this post– but we did pre-emptively decide– at the end, we won’t add a bunch of new commitments; we will try to double down on what worked and what was avoided. Let’s see where we land. 

In 2023 we committed to: 

1. Deepen our roots with our local, artistic, and national communities

2. Open our new studio to the public for events, classes, and gatherings

3. Staying Alive

4. Imagining and launching development for new projects that are completely FRESH

5. Ending our toxic relationship with perfectionism that keeps us from finishing and releasing valuable projects, events, and content

6. Authentically and actively promoting our work and activities without fear, shame, or letting impostor syndrome stop us. Going full transparency on all our behind-the-scenes so you can learn from our mistakes instead of yours

7. Spending more time in collective joy

8. Nurture our current artistic relationships while intentionally creating space for more people at the party

9. Develop, share, and hold ourselves accountable to a new three-year strategic plan

10. Supporting Women Of Color Artists (And to do this revisit number 3)

Ok. Reviewed And Processed.

Now it is time to develop a rating system. Do we be boring and start with a 5-star rating system? Is it a likert scale, 1-5? Is it thumbs up or thumbs down? Is it narrative thoughts? Is it school grades? 

We always overcomplicate, so we designed the following:

🌈 WE DID THAT. (We will keep doing it because its a given, now.)  

🌙 We kinda did that! And it stays because it needs more work and attention

🔥 We tried. Not a slam dunk, life is hard.

👀 We said what?? We didn’t even dip our toes in the water. 

Here is our report card ranked by our new scale:  

Ok, what next?

We assessed. We evaluated. We ranked. We argued about how much of any one thing we did. And by argue, I mean we laughed at ourselves really hard and realized– joy can come in the sneakiest ways. And finally, we synthesized. 

Instead of a list of 10 commitments, we created four pillars that we stuffed everything inside of—but made it meaningful to us. We had to find a way to get inspired by the work ahead, so instead of a list, we opted for words that resonated with us. You may find this a valuable exercise, too. Try it ; ) 

In 2024 We Commit To:

DEEPEN ROOTS.
Strengthen and Expand Relationships and Partnerships: In all the ways, but centering our desire to share better and utilize our space in service. Build more pathways for listening to our community's needs and feedback.

LIVING LOUDER 
Healing our relationship to ourselves and finding joy: getting out of survival mode. Creating spacious, luxurious timelines. Not doing things because we have to, but only projects we are obsessed with. Still fighting perfectionism, jealousy, and the beast of comparison. 

INVITE DREAMING BACK IN.
Building New Opportunities: Create new programs, events, workshops, and products that bring us all a lot more joy, and strengthen our creative discipline and creative genius. 

BELIEVE IN OUR WORTH.
Resource Reset: We must reframe and stop avoiding a healthier, more abundant relationship between ourselves and resource generation/money.

We hope some of our newly reframed commitments resonate with you. 

If they do, and you want to be a part of this journey, get the conversation going in the comments by dropping your 2024 commitments to yourself. Other acts of love we would appreciate include signing up to be a storyteller, sharing our newsletter with a friend, downloading a freebie, or sending us an email here. Make 2024 a slower, stronger, more sustainable one for #teamluna with a contribution as we focus on rebuilding our ability to earn revenue and value ourselves and each other. If shopping is more your thing, purchase any of our products or tickets to one of our upcoming events. 

And don’t forget: our studio in Boyle Heights is here to host you and your next big idea, big moment, or scary experiment. Use this inquiry form to get a space-use convo going.