To resolve, or not to resolve…

The internet is abuzz today with lists of resolutions on the same 8 topics: fitness, money, health, work, travel, spirituality, creative outlets, and relationships. Last year I made some very specific goals within each of those topics and I didn’t complete any of them. I mean, not a single one! I made what I thought were manageable goals and wrote out a detailed action plan…and with the exception of a few weeks here or there I was too overwhelmed with all of it to follow through. And I discovered that the problem with well-intended goals like “exercise 3 times per week” is that if/when you miss a few weeks (or months) in a row it can seem impossible to catch up. And honestly, after 2 months of failing I pretty much gave up completely.

So. Here we are. January 2015: a brand new year without any mistakes in it. Yet.

To resolve, or not to resolve; that is the question. And to be honest I’ve spent several hours in the last two weeks writing down lists, crossing things off, re-writing, rearranging, re-crossing…and my final list looks an awful lot like my 2014 list, which, um, was a pretty solid fail. So, while I will strive to improve in the quintessential areas of fitness/money/health/work/travel/spirituality/creativity/relationships, those goals are not what I want to write about today.

In 2015 I want to live deliberately with passion and grace. I want to live each day, enjoy each day, but I also want to plan and prepare for future happiness and emotional and physical well-being. I want to maximize both the short and long-run experiences of 2015 in all aspects of my life. Next December I want to look back and see a year of experiences—both positive and sucktacular, joyful and heart wrenching—and I want to feel satisfied that I handled each situation with intentional behavior and deliberate choices, I want to feel that I was passionate and engaged in the outcomes. And it would be a huge bonus if I felt that, more often than not, I exercised some level of grace in those situations.

Will this be more difficult than a list I can check off or a chart where I can award myself stars? Maybe. Will the end result be better? I really hope so. I’ve never had a mission statement for a year before, I’ve always been pretty much a New Year Resolutions kind of girl, so this will be an experiment and I hope it helps me throughout the year to reassess and reevaluate how I view individual situations and how I respond with my overall behavior.

Live deliberately, with passion and grace.

Harriet sig

 

0 thoughts on “To resolve, or not to resolve…

  1. Saskia

    I personally suck at detailed resolutions but am generally pretty good at mission statements. Sounds like you’ve found a good one for next year!

    Reply
  2. Mommy Sanest

    I love it! I decided it wasn’t worth writing out resolutions this year. Quitting my job (which I did today :-O) was enough. I know what I want to accomplish this year. I’m just going to do it.

    Reply
  3. Sherry

    I love it! I don’t make resolutions most years. This year I have enough on my plate with some changes at work, that I just want to keep my head above water and not let my house fall apart while I’m getting work sorted out. If I happen to read some books, exercise sometimes, and otherwise improve myself or my life, then that’s just a big ol’ bonus.

    Reply
    1. Feisty Harriet Post author

      I totally hear you, that’s a lot of why I decided not to do the bullet point list this year…but I’m hoping I’ll still feel successful by living (mostly? kind of?) to adhere to a mission statement/sentence.

      xox

      Reply
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