...otherwise known as the Year of Really Scary Birthdays. In my family, we have a 50th, a 25th, a 20th, and a 16th birthday looming this year. Add me starting community college and Lyn entering her second year of college, and one of the cousins on Mom's side getting married (the first of the eighteen of us to do so)...wow. Lots of changes.
So recently I was thinking about the dreaded NYR: New Year's resolutions. Last year, I made several, and managed to complete...a few...of them. I did read 30 books in 2008 and I did push-ups and sit-ups every day through the end of March (after that things grew a bit more sporadic, to say the least), but I failed miserably in several other aspects. In view of this, I decided that this year, instead of making resolutions for the whole year, that I would make mini challenges for myself each month. Each month will have a different focus: diet, exercise, dance, writing, reading, beauty's building blocks, doing hard things, habits, and cultivating interests. (I'm focusing on writing for three months and reading for two.) Each month has different "requirements" for me to fulfill...for example, I have to read eight books each month in March and September; peform one or two random acts of kindness every day for a week during February, for the focus on beauty's building blocks (which are compassion, contentment, consistency, and the Fruits of the Spirit); do a writing prompt and write 1,000 + words every day in April, August, and November for writing; walk 20 minutes every day and exercise in other ways four times a week during July for exercise (I can hardly wait for this one!), and so forth. I've always enjoyed one-month challenges such as the ones that Brio Magazine occasionally suggests, so this should fit me pretty well.
The only downside to this is that I an the type of person who is highly motivated to get a lot done, but will either get distracted easily or overestimate the amount of time I actually have. Therefore, I almost always end up getting much less done than I would have liked, and then berating myself relentlessly afterwards. Therefore, I am cautiously optimistic about everything I'm going to try to make myself do this year. So it really is my "year of living dangerously". Wish me luck! I'm definitely going to need it...
2 comments:
You know, m'gel, you are one inspiring person. I love the idea of living dangerously, and I think your monthly goals are fantastic. Seriously, even if you aren't able to meet all of them, you will still be on track. I never make NYRs, but I do want to live passionately this year. I want to turn the corner and stop wishing my present situation away. I want to quit feeling constantly homesick. I want to find something I'm passionate about and go for it full force. I want to make a difference. I want to help out. I want to LIVE. And I'm excited to find out where that's going to take me. Love you!
you're starting to sound pretty inspirational yourself, m'gel! :D
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