I hate new year’s resolutions. I tend to reject the idea that I should set a goal simply because I got a new calendar. And, they shouldn’t be called resolutions. They should be referred to as ” unrealistic goals that will do nothing but highlight my lack of resolve.” In fact, the only resolution I make is to maintain my resolution not to make resolutions.
All that being said, I’m breaking last year’s resolution and making three new resolutions this year:
1. Find the joy in my life. Some of you already know about my daily “Happy Hour”. This is something I established for myself when I began to realize that I was bringing a lot of negativity home from work and giving it all to Greg. So, for the hour after I get home from work, I don’t discuss anything negative. Amazingly, I’m finding that I don’t need to discuss a lot of it after that hour has passed. I want to extend this feeling. Instead of just eliminating the negativity, I want to actively locate the joy that already exists in my life. I know I take advantage of the fact that there is a lot of love in my life an in my family, and I don’t want to continue to do that (regardless of how mushy that sounds.)
2. Actively pursue what makes me happy. This is a little extension of the first resolution, but I think it warrants its own mentioning. I know that my work right now doesn’t make me happy, but there are many things that do. I need to look for those things and engage myself with those things. This, I believe, will help me to feel more comfortable in my current situation. It may change my situation. Who knows- maybe it’ll make me happy about my work!
3. Go to the gym more often. Yeah, yeah. This one isn’t deep, and there aren’t any fuzzies about it, but I’m paying for the membership, so I should go, right? Plus, if I’m doomed to fail at at least one of my resolutions, I’d rather it be this one than the other two.
These goals (particularly the first two) are incredibly important right now. After having a conversation with Greg last week and telling him that I wasn’t really all that happy with my life, he pointed out to me that he’s not sure I’ll ever be happy. Ouch. That was a blow. In any case, he has a point. I have this picture in my head of how I expect my life to be, and let me tell you, this ain’t it. That’s just the problem, though. Life isn’t a picture, or an image in one’s mind. I gotta come to grips with reality, something I’ve never been that good about doing. After all, I’m an idealist, not a realist.
Filed under: alo, goals | Tagged: blows to the ego, new year's
