Resolutions
For reasons that can only put down to being an educated white male with simultaneously too much and too little self-esteem, I once again feel the need to start a new year by beginning to blog again. And that’s why we’re here. Hello. I thought I’d start by talking about new year’s resolutions.
It’s heartening that we, as a society, treat a new year as a chance to be different, become better. And yes, it never quite goes to plan, but we try nonetheless in our own big and small ways. It’s hard to tell which ones will stick; I gave up drinking Coke in January 2017 and haven’t had a sip of the stuff in three years, and you try telling anyone who knew me that was going to happen. And so what if they don’t stick? Even if you only stick out out for a few weeks, or months, it’s a sign that you want to change and a sign that you can try. That’s one hell of a start.
So these are my resolutions this year, for the most part. I might mess ‘em all up by the end of February, but it’s worth a go, isn’t it?
- Do things for the right reasons. Oh, this is tricky. isn’t it? I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why I think and behave in the ways I do, trying to be conscious of why I do certain things for the wrong reasons. Why I say yes to some things even though what I want out of it would be bad for me, why I say no to some things even though they’d be better for me. And so that’s something I’m trying to be aware of this year. To make sure I put myself in the right situations for the right reasons, and take myself out of the wrong situations.
- Keep getting fitter. I lost about 8kg in the last four months of 2019, through actually exercising properly and watching both what and how much I eat. Yeah, turns out it’s literally that easy, who knew? I’ll be honest, I’m still not happy with how I look yet. And I’m aware that’s a slippery slope, but see resolution #1 to be assured that I’m not doing this to look “ripped” or to impress anyone or anything like that, but to be happier in myself and my long-term sustainable health. I can run 5k on the treadmill multiple times a week now, and that’s ridiculous considering where I was this time last year. So I just need to keep that up, keep up the better diet, and not let it become all-encompassing. Which, after Christmas this year, I can promise you won’t be an issue.
- Use and keep up a bullet journal. I do have a slightly fetisishtic love of organisation which does not apply to how messy my life is, both physically and indeed at times metaphorically. After countless apps and websites, I’m turning to a structured form of paper-based event management and task tracking, with the primary aim being to get all the stuff that I overthink about and keep rattling around my brain out of there and onto the page instead.
- Regular blogging and more regular diarying. The blogging won’t last. But the private diary might. I regret not doing it more in my more formative years, because the scraps I do have from school and the beginning of university are fascinating to look back on now (to me and literally no one else, obviously). A brief diary entry at the end of the day, just to jog the memories of little details that make up life.
- Daily happiness/gratitude post-its. This is the most wanky sounding one, and I’m aware that that’s saying something after those four. But a friend of mine did this last year and reported success, so I’m giving it a go. The idea as I understand it (or at the very least, the way I’m doing it even if I’ve completely misunderstood it) is to write down on a post-it note each day something that’s made you happy or greateful that day, fold it up, and stick it somewhere. I’m sure a lot of the value is in the act of forcing yourself to think about that each day, but the idea of opening them up at the end of the year is also kind of funny to think about.
So there we go. Five resolutions that I hadn’t really fully thought through until writing this post, so I guess it’s been useful for me even if not particularly interesting to you. Who am I kidding, you’re not reading to this point. I reckon there’s only three more entries this year before I forget anyway, so no worries.
Sam Healer
Software engineer. Occasional musician. Erstwhile comedian. Cultural omnivore.