What's On Your List?

Hopes and Improvements for The New Year

1. Spend less time watching mindless TV/ surfing the Internet
2. Spend more time reading
(Super-Specific Goal: read at least one book a week)
3. No new notebooks until I've used up the ones I have
4. Do something creative every day
5. Eat better and exercise more to be healthy, not to lose weight
(Super-Specific Goal: exercise 3x a week, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits)
6. Cook at home more, and use more fresh ingredients
(Super-Specific Goal: 3 new recipes a month)
7. Make positive affirmations a significant part of my day. Make sure not to leave the bathroom every morning without finding something positive to love about myself
8. Write more letters
(Super-Specific Goal: write 2 letters a month)
9. Improve my french
(Super-Specific Goal: spend at least one hour each day doing/reading/watching/listening to something french)
10. Learn a new skill
11. Stay clutter-free
12. Maintain a 4.0 in my classes
13. Try to write more
(Super-Specific Goal: write something every day)
14. Be more outgoing
15. See more plays/operas/ballets - go to more museums/conservatories/events etc...
16. Live joyfully, in the moment and with purpose
17. Be kind to others
18. Be kind to myself

Hopes and Improvements for The New Year

It's that time of the year, time to start making our New Year's resolutions lists and wish for more willpower into the new year. I've been thinking a lot about resolutions lately. I absolutely LOVE lists, and ANY excuse to make one is good in my book. This year, though, I really want to make a list of "resolutions" that I actually keep, instead of a random list of things that would be nice but irrelevant come the 2nd. So how do I do that?

First, I'm throwing away the resolution bit. Way too much baggage and laziness comes with that word. I've heard other people instead prefer a list of "goals", which is an improvement but I think I've come up with one better. This year, I will be making a list of 'Hopes and Improvements for The New Year'. Good name, right? I think it has a much nicer ring than "resolution", and instead of the guilty and undisciplined feeling I get when I think resolution, I'm instead getting an excited and...kinder to myself feeling. Let's just say I will be much happier following a list of 'Hopes and Improvements' than 'resolutions'.

Now, onto my second problem, the actual goals themselves. As I've said, I LOVE making lists, the more detailed the better. This means that when I make a goal to read more, I can't resist adding onto it until I have a goal to read exactly 2.3 books every week until I die. It's fun, but most of the time I get overwhelmed by trying to reach my super-special specific goal that I lose the spirit of the original one, and give up altogether. So this year, I'm not going to take away the fun of making those specific plans, but I am going to keep the original goals, and those plans will be the ones that really matter.

Finally, I've been thinking about the date of "resolutions", New Year's Eve and Day. Since I'm now making a no-pressure list for a better life, why wait for an arbitrary date to start making improvements? So, in the spirit of an unconventional resolution list, I'm going to start today!