Resolutions, last year's and this year's

[asakiyume]

I didn't used to do resolutions, but I did some last year, and I'm going to this year, too.

My resolutions last year were

(1) Learn Spanish. --I haven't mastered Spanish yet by any means, but I worked on it regularly, and I certainly know more than I did at the beginning of the year, and I'm going to keep at it this year.

(2) Make significant progress on my novel. --I made progress on it, but I can't really say if it was significant. This year, I'm going to phrase the writing goal somewhat differently...

(3) Do the hard things. --Wow, abstract goal or what. Nevertheless, having it as a resolution did get me to examine my instincts and reactions and maybe made me push harder at some things.

My resolutions this year are going to be more concrete, and process- rather than goal-focused.

(1) Writing: I've been writing one day a week pretty regularly. I'd like to increase that to at least two days a week. (I mean: creative writing: fiction and poetry. I write on LJ or Twitter pretty much every day, but I'm talking about the fiction and poetry.)

(2) Spanish: Do my Duolingo goal EVERY DAY. I can buy leeway by doing somewhat more on some days to make up for days I miss. But best would be to do a my goal every day.

(3) I wanted to have resolution related to noticing things, but not just "I saw this thing." I wanted it to be more like "I learned this thing," but I can't guarantee that I'll learn things regularly, and I don't want to be fudging it just to meet a goal. So maybe I'll make the resolution to record things I notice each day, and then gather them up at the end of the week and see if I've learned anything.

Here's something I wondered about, and learned today: whether or not there were elk in Massachusetts. Answer: no. We have moose though--I've seen one walk through our neighborhood.

Comments

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Alaska, there were literally moose that lived in our backyard - they'd hang out in the little forested greenbelt behind our house, and occasionally come up into our yard to look for tasty willow shoots or (on one memorably warm day) drink from/cool off at our lawn sprinkler. Suburban moose. :) I asked my mother once why they were so awkward looking, and she said, "God probably made them out of leftovers."

I know it's something of a new-agey buzzword, but your last goal sounds similar to "practicing mindfulness". Noticing things around you without letting your preconceived judgments and expectations get in the way. I've been working on it myself, and it's surprisingly difficult (holy heck, do I have a lot of preconceived judgments and expectations)...but at the same time, rewarding. You learn a lot more when you come at things from a place of humility and newness.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You learn a lot more when you come at things from a place of humility and newness.

Amen!

And I like the idea of moose being made up of leftovers. That made me smile!