I dunno about y’all but I am a sucker for New Year’s Resolutions and resolutions in general. A reason to promise myself I am going to change something? Hell yeah, sign me up. Can’t say I always keep them but boy do I love making a list at the end of each year.
Typically when I make these lists of resolutions I keep them to myself but this time around I thought it would be fun to share some resolutions with others. You know, maybe sharing will help keep me honest and committed to these goals… maybe something someone else has in mind will inspire me… etc.
So, here are some of my resolutions for 2020 I intend to keep it. Would love to hear what other folks may have in store for the new year.
Keep a daily journal
Write a haiku every day (I did this for a few months in 2019 and it proved to be a really nice, meditative exercise; it was also more manageable than writing true journal entries on a daily basis)
Read more in general (I used to tell myself I had to read a minimum of 52 books a week but that has changed as life has changed and I find myself with less time for reading… bummer)
Learn how to make kombucha at home
Minimize screen time where possible (e.g. don’t look at your phone when taking the train to work, when walking places, waiting for people, etc.)
No buying new video games until a good faith effort is made on everything currently owned (I don’t have a huge backlog but wouldn’t it be nice to have no backlog)
I want to make more decisions intentionally, rather than letting things happen or being guilted into doing things.
I’m getting married this year and I have family wanting us to do things that we have zero interest in, it would be nice if we could go into that knowing that all our choices were ones we actually wanted to make.
I want to go to Hawaii this year. I have had a standing offer from a friend who lives there to spend a handful of days down there. I really want to go but the thought of spending 1000 dollars just for a few days there leaves me with a very noxious pit in my stomach. Thanks capitalism. But I want to make it down there because not having to pay for a hotel mean it might be the cheapest it ever gets for a trip like this. You only live once right…?
Looking back on the past two years has been looking at myself being driven by a current as opposed to actively driving my life. Thinking of starting to write freelance as opposed to going for the degree which has become a toxic process. Stop trying to get my parents to accept radical models of disability with regards to my palsy. Take a trip up to the bay area at least once this year to recenter emotionally
I got a weekly planner for Christmas, so even though I have no money and no hopes of a career, I’d like to maybe do something with my time that is… ordered, give myself deadlines for things? Maybe just daily writing goals, taking free online classes, something simple but scheduled.
Lose some weight as a corollary to the above, but feeling good and healthy is the first priority!
Take more days off
Put maximum effort into my burgeoning relationship (if it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out, but I’m determined not to let that happen because of my tendency to shy away from things that might mean significant changes in my life)
I just finished my bachelor’s, so 2020 marks a new chapter in my life. These are partly new year goals, but mostly just things I’ve been wanting to do that coincide with the new year.
Clean my apartment every Saturday
Fly fish twice per month
Practice Spanish 3 hours each week, hopefully through volunteer work
Publish to a blog once per week. All my writing up to this point has been academic, and I’m done with that
So, I’m ambivalent about making big resolutions, since that’s mostly setting yourself up for failure. (Every time I’ve had a resolution, New Year or otherwise, about learning a language, I’ve ended up failing - and not through not putting time in - and being heartbroken about the failure, and my inability to perform at these tasks.)
So, I guess the secret to New Year Resolutions is deciding not to do things, rather than to do things.
In that spirit then, I have a single Resolution:
Say “No” to things, even if that means that they won’t get done by others. [Recognise that I have a limited amount of emotional and mental energy, and I can’t spend it on everything]
Not exactly a New Years Resolution, but we are moving from Minnesota to California on the 19th. I need to make an effort to meet new friends, hopefully will get involved in local activism/politics. I would like to think I would do more photography and generally spend more time outside since I will be living somewhere that the air doesn’t hurt my face 1/4 of the year.
Mine is to be much more considered before I speak. I am, at times, all together too flippant and don’t always consider how my words might be received by other people.
Oh one more.
I have lots of friends who speak english as a second or third language and my goal for the end of 2020 is to not have any of them have to speak English to talk to me.
