Every year I claim that I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions, and then every year I find myself making New Year's resolutions. I think it's a hold over, knee-jerk statement from back in the days when I really didn't make resolutions. When life seemed like an endless road, full of possibilities stretching out before me. When I didn't put so much thought and effort into living, and just lived. Every year that passes, every birthday I celebrate, I feel those possibilities slipping away and the frightening finiteness of life becomes a little more real.
I know that I'm still young, that life is far from over and every day is another opportunity to do something great, but I have reached the age where I have realized that if you do want to "be anything you want to be", you have to work at it. If you're lucky, opportunity knocks, but it's far more likely that you'll have to hunt it down with a tranquilizer gun, tackle it, and hold on for dear life.
So, anyway, all of this to say, I made some resolutions centered around becoming a better person, both in mind and body, and I'm resigned to the fact that I apparently am a New Year's resolution kind of gal.
"A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes." ~Mahatma Ghandi
1) Reading: In continuation of my somewhat belated resolution last year, I'm going to try going another year without reading any "chick lit". I think I did a decent job cutting the genre from my reading list in 2008, with just a few journeys back into fluff territory, and I was surprised to find that I really didn't miss it and the few that I did read felt a little empty and formulaic to me. I'm not knocking a good Sophie Kinsella or Jane Green when you need to give your mind a break, but I feel much more inspired and moved when I'm reading books with a little more heft to them. I've always kept a list going in my sidebar of the books that I've read recently (a list that has been woefully out of date lately), but I've also started a new page (found in "Bonus Features" under my profile picture to the left) tracking the books I've read in 2009, along with a little personal review.
2) Writing: In short: Write more. I suffer from a strange malady in which I lay awake nights thinking up stories and plot twists, characters and intriguing themes, then I sit down to write them all out and am completely blocked. From what I understand, the only way through writers block is to just keep writing, even if it's complete crap (which is not to say that everything I write isn't complete crap--I am incapable of judging for myself). My resolution for this year is to write at least one short story that I deem worthy of submission to various literary contests and journals and to write at least fifteen pages per week of the ongoing trainwreck with the working title, Gemini. A subresolution would be to come up with a less cringe-inducing title.
"Health is not valued until sickness comes." ~Thomas Fuller
3) Eating: After spending the vast majority of this winter wishing I could either die or trade in my nose/throat/stomach/head, I have realized that both Colby and my mother are right: I eat like crap. And I think it's safe to assume that my steady diet of candy, cheese, starches, and cereal is having a less than healthful effect on my body. I don't expect my diet to magically change overnight, but I am going to make a real effort to eat better. Here are my goals:
- Pizza no more than once a month
- Eat at least two servings of a fruit or vegetable every day
- Drink at least 3 large glasses of water every day
- Take a multivitamin every day
- Dessert no more than twice a week (and YES, Angela, that does include breakfast items from Starbucks)
4) Exercise: Did you know that I bought the 30 Day Shred on October 19th? Do you want to know how I feel about it or how well it worked for me? Well, I don't know, because I haven't so much as OPENED it. Funny thing these workout DVDs. You actually have to DO them for them to be effective. Oh, and that elliptical machine sitting up in our loft? Haven't been on it since before Colby got home from his deployment. More than two months ago. So, yeah, safe to say there is plenty of room for improvement here. Improvement along the lines of doing at least thirty minutes of cardio three times a week and completing the 30 Shred by the end of February? Yeah, I think that would do it.
So, those are my goals for 2009. I feel like there's a certain amount of effort involved in all of them, but none of them are completely unrealistic or a set up for failure, so I hope that by the time 2010 rolls around (oh my God, that looks crazy!) I'll be able to look back on this post without feeling completely defeated. What about you? Did you make any resolutions this year?
(Oh! And in case you haven't seen my tweets or Facebook--no, my house did NOT flood and I was back home by about 4 o'clock the next morning. Thanks for your good wishes!)
