2009 Resolutions

I know many smart people who say that resolutions are silly. You shouldn’t wait until the beginning of the year to make changes. I agree. That’s why I have lifetime goals, semester goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and day to day goals. You could say I’m goal obsessed.

After so many years of this, I got kind of burned out on goals. I didn’t get tired of the work that goes into achieving goals, I got tired of the constant self-assessment and failure. I just wanted to live. So, I chilled out a bit on the goals, and, what do you know, I didn’t stop achieving things.

After a short break, I was able to approach goals with a better attitude. I missed the mental focus that comes with goals, but I tried to drop the super self-critical edge. I started to think of goals as ways to improve upon the person I already am instead of ways to start over, perfect this time.

So, that’s the attitude with which I approach the following resolutions. These are changes I’m excited to make in order to improve my life, and not changes I need to make in order to like myself.

The Big Two

1. Eat better: This one is huge for me, and I’ll try to explain it better in future posts. Last year I lost weight; eating to be healthy and eating to lose weight are very similar, but they are not the same thing. This year, I want to eat foods that are better for me, a more diverse variety of foods, foods that are more organically grown, foods that are more ethically produced, and foods that are more locally gathered. This is going to take a lot of regular effort from me, and I’ve always been reluctant to put time and energy into preparing food. This year, though, I think I can do it.

2. Do something with the novel: This sounds quite vague, but I mean something pretty specific. Doing something with my novel means, first, finishing it, so that I have a draft I’m willing to let people read. Second, I have to let people read it! Third, I want to try to get it published. I don’t know that it’s publishable. I have my doubts. But, I want to make at least some effort to shop it out, and do all that annoying agent/publisher search stuff.

Other Resolutions to Keep in Mind

3. Finish Thesis and Graduate (May): This one I’m sure to do, whether I make it a resolution or not. But, it’s big!

4. Run!: This is always a goal. Of course, exercise is a big part of getting and staying healthy. Plus, I enjoy it. I’d like to run at least one race this year, however small. I should be tracking my efforts on my lately very quiet Running Blog.

5. Grow Blog: I feel a little shy talking about my blogging ambitions here, but that’s just silly. Basically I want to continue producing very regular content and expand my readership. I’d love to be the blog reader myself who comments on every post; that’s not realistic, but I want to continue to participate as much as I can in the blog community.

6. Journal More: Blogging has distracted me from journaling, and that’s a shame, because I love to journal. It’s also my favorite time to listen to music–ahh, heaven. This just requires me to carve out the time to do something I love to do.

7. Explore More: With this, I’m referring mostly to music, but also books and blogs. On music, I like the familiar. I listen to the same artists over and over, letting only a few new ones in each year. But, at this point, my taste in music has become almost stagnant. I don’t think I’ve gained any new favorites this year, and I’ve hardly listened to anything other than The Boy With No Name in the last several months. I need to work a little harder to expand my horizons. I also need to find contemporary fiction authors I like, and I need to regularly read new blogs! I’m always open to suggestions!

8. Get Finances in Order: I doubt I’ll ever go into great detail on this one, but basically I’m setting myself up for more and more debt without the promise of any great salary waiting at the end. This is what I want to do, but it involves sacrifice, and I need to be smarter about my finances than I have been.

9. Define Tasks More Clearly: This resolution might exist only as an ideal, but, for my own sanity, I’d like to define my tasks more clearly, so that I’m not stressing about all things all the time. This means no procrastinating on my research assistant tasks or homework, but instead getting them done, so that I can go do fun things without work hanging over my head.

10. Reach Out to People More: I need to put a little more emphasis on developing relationships this year. Being such an introvert, it’s easy for me to avoid, but I like people, and I want them in my life.

11. Look at this list again before December 31st: This one’s pretty self-explanatory. I might try to do a monthly check-in.