2013 has come and gone, and 2014 is well upon us. And January, as everyone knows, is the season of resolutions. What will we set out to do? How will we make 2014 better than last year, the year before, and all the years before that? Resolutions are a sign of our constant striving for improvement--for perfection.
But 2014? This year, I'm throwing perfection out the window. My resolutions in the past have always pushed towards the unreachable state that is "perfect." It hasn't worked. So here's a list of resolutions that push towards... well, not imperfection, but perhaps the embrace of imperfection:
- Read carefully. Slow down. Savor the pages. If I'm not savoring them, skip it and move on. Life's too short to read bad books.
- Run in new places. Without the GPS tracker. Who cares how many miles it is?
- Eat more chocolate. Also, drink more red wine.
- Go to-do-less. One entire week without a to-do list. Vacation weeks do not count.
- Be thankful. Sounds easy. Probably isn't.
- Converse. (Not the shoes, the verb.) In person. Online. Reach out. Connect.
- Try. Without trying, there is no doing, no matter what Yoda says.
- Fail. We can't learn from our mistakes if we're constantly afraid of making them.
- Sleep. Who doesn't need more sleep?
- Less multi-tasking. Sure, listening to a book while driving can be great. But so can cruising along with the windows down and the music blaring. Getting a TV show in on the treadmill is a great way not to focus on the running, but maybe focusing on running shouldn't be such a terrible thing. One thing at a time, even if that means sacrificing productivity.
What are your goals (or un-goals) for 2014? What do you do to stick to your resolutions?
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This post is part of The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday meme.
