I Hereby Resolve To...

Now's the time for everybody to make their lists, decide to do something new and improved with their lives, and look optimistically forward to how much better things will be once they develop that new habit of keeping up with washing the dishes. Were I resolving things, that would be near the top of my list. Oh dirty dishes, how you do accumulate.

"What's that? You're not making resolutions?"

No, dear reader, I am not. While I love Jenny's approach of making resolutions by building on your existing accomplishments and accentuating the positive, I will be offering no list of my own.

I can't imagine planning out my whole year all at once, after all I even break down my monthly goals into weeks. Also, the idea of resolutions implies a certain knowledge of what one hopes to accomplish in the new year. My priorities are still in the midst of changing and I don't know that what they are now will match next week. In short, this whole grand plan thing overwhelms me. So, instead of making myself accountable to New Years Resolutions, I'm going to substitute with January's monthly challenge.

Last month I had big plans for being incredibly productive and for revising things. Those plans fell through in a big way and I didn't hit most of my goals. Whups. However, I did spend some quality time relaxing and letting myself decompress from a demanding schedule of graduate classes and two jobs. I didn't get those revisions done, but I regained some personal balance, perspective, etc.

For this month, I'm making it my goal to do a bit more decompressing, have a bit more fun, and think hard on my priorities. I keep doing and committing to do things, and I am no longer sure why they are important to me. Going out of the country took me oh-so-many miles away from all of my usual responsibilities and gave me a few days to experience what my life would be like without them. I've got to say, it emphasized the need to cut back. I'm now more certain than ever that quitting my waitressing job this year is the right thing to do. So, check one off the list.

My challenge to you is to take some time this month and evaluate. What do you do in your daily life? Why do you do it? Where do your obligations come from? How many come from you? How many come from external forces? If you had to name the one thing in your life that is most important to you, what would it be? Why is it so imporant to you? Are you currently giving it the time it deserves? What is the one least important thing to you? Is there any way to eliminate it? What is something about your life which you are really happy with? Is there any way to expand on it? What is the most stressful part of your life? How can you eliminate it/make it less stressful? How are your personal relationships doing?

The list could go on, but I think you get the idea. Alternately, here's the short version: What's important to you? Why? Is that a good reason? Do you want/need to make changes in relation to this important thing?

Take out some paper if you want, or open a new Excel spreadsheet if that's what you're into. Get as technical as you like (you can even assign numerical values to things if that's what gets you going). Or, write nothing down and just think about it. Start now, take your time, let it all percolate over the course of the month. Come January 31 we'll see where we are.