Monday, December 31, 2012

Resolving to resolve...

So, I don't really know what makes a good list of resolutions.  I have a friend who set the bar real low, like learning how to spell the word inconvenient.  You actually didn't see this, but I misspelled it, before I corrected it.  So maybe that is the way to go.  I always have big goals and big plans for the new year.  I always think that I am going to accomplish big things- rarely do I.

I know that goal setting should be measurable and doable.  Maggie Mason has some great ideas on goals... like recognizing umbrella goals.  Lumping and grouping.  I am a huge proponent of life list items- but I feel like these are more concrete... I think that by attempting to accomplish items off my life list, I will be adding to the broader vaguer items that are on my resolutions list.

What's more, is that I am feeling discontent.  I hope this isn't just amped up from the time of year, whereby I am longing for the end of the soccer season (when I get my personal life back), or maybe it is the winter, and I am feeling the desire for rebirth and regrowth.  Or maybe it's because we just got through Christmas and I realized how much stuff we got, little of it we actually needed.

Here is what I know:

1.  I have a closet full of clothes that I don't wear.  I tend to wear the same 8-10 pieces every week or every other week.  Between my dresser and my closet, I sometimes have a difficult time finding stuff to wear to work. And I don't like most of it.  I am a grown-ass woman with a PhD, I should not hang onto clothes I don't like for ____ reason.

What's more, is that I do this with a lot of stuff.  Our home office is not a place where I feel like I can work.  Because my desk is in a high traffic area, it serves as a collection point for a myriad of toys, chargers, mail, newspapers, etc.  It just does not work for me.  Further, I have writing stuff, craft stuff, sewing stuff, Nico's toys, kitchen stuff, where I have gotten out of the habit of having it well organized and pared down.  So, naturally when I go to do ____ activity, I have to spend time clearing space, getting organized.  It's crazy.  I feel like I am six months away from an episode of hoarders.

2.  For years, I have made the resolution of getting down to my college sport weight (CSW).  And every year, I push that idea to the back burner.  Especially when I wasn't getting results.  No time for the gym.  Can't go for a walk.  The excuses are endless.  I experimented with an eating plan back in the fall, and I got results.  It was based on some research that I have been doing about the pros and cons of different diet plans.  Once I got my head intellectually around it, some weight came off relatively easily. So now that I know what works for my body and how to get results out of it, I think I am in a better place than I had been before.  Also, several of my Life List Items include physical feats: do 10 pull-ups, run the 7 Mile Bridge Run, Run Every Day in a year.  If I make a plan of trying to knock out some of these life list items, I can reach my CSW resolution.

3.  I have the great misfortune of being someone who can exist without sleep.  Not well.  But I can.  And because I can, I often save, as a backup, the option to pull an all-nighter.  Like an overachieving undergrad.  Seriously.  The problem with being someone who works through the night, is that I use it as my fall back plan.  So if I have procrastinated or put off doing something, I stay up all night the night or two nights before it is due and get it done.

The latent result is that I can be a grumpy b!tch when I don't get enough sleep.  This pattern of self-abuse isn't so bad, except when it becomes manifest, like when I stop taking daily showers to taking every other day showers (yeah, I know, it's gross, I am working on it).   I will stop wearing make up.  Stop doing my eyebrows, coloring my hair.  And that is all fine and good.  Maybe as a working mother, I don't deserve to look super cute all the time.  But I feel it, when I get run down like that.  I feel haggard and stressed and old.  I feel grumpy and so much older than my 33 years.

So understanding these three principles, here is what I resolve to do this year:
1. I will build a better/closer relationship with my husband and my son.
2. I will contribute to personal and household savings every month.
3. I will take better care of me.
4. I will get down to my college sport weight.
5. Get a new job.
6. Blog more (son blog, WHS blog, life list).
7. Photoblog for 1 year.
8. Cleaner/less cluttered home.
9. Project Life 2012, 2011, 2010, 2003-2009, Nico.
10.  Completely outline idea for novel.
11. Do yoga 26 times in 2013.
12. Read 12 books on relationships.
13. Read 12 books on parenting.

So there it is- 13 resolutions for the year 2013.  Let's see how this goes.

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