Monday, January 5, 2009

A Resolution You Can Live With


Poor Santa, he just finished his "to do" list and keeled over! I know exactly how he feels! That's why I have a suggestion...


Instead of a long list of “New Year’s Resolutions” designed to make you feel tired, irresponsible, and inept, why not focus on one attribute you’d like to achieve over the coming year? (Okay, over-achievers, TWO attributes? There, are you happy?) Cull down your expectations and marshal all your energies toward one bird in the hand instead of chasing a flock of starlings that’ll wing their way skyward and out of your reach.

Start by playing it forward. This time NEXT year, how would you like to be different? What would you want to change about yourself or your life?

Or consider, what has driven you to the brink of hair-pulling aggravation this year? What has bothered you? What has kept you from your goals? What has hounded you and made your life more complicated and less enjoyable?

Or think of how you’d like to improve. Pinpoint an area that’s a “someday I’ll” (read: “Someday Isle”) for you. What would that be? What do you keep meaning to change? When you stand in the grocery check-out lane, what article on the magazine covers always draws your attention?

Now, distill that change, that goal into a word. What would that word be?

Hit the “pause” button. Is that really the right word? Does it resonate? Don’t choose a politically correct word. Or a current hot button. Choose a word that can serve as due North for you and you alone.

Write that word on an index card or piece of stiff paper. Put it somewhere you can see it on a daily basis. Or, go through magazines and tear out photos that seem to support your special word. Glue them onto a sheet of paper. Write your special word smack-dab in the center of your collage.

While chaos reigns supreme around us, we can choose move along a straightforward path toward our goal. As long as we keep it simple, we’ve got a fighting chance. I just know it!

PS Thanks, Camille, for posting this while I’m in New York City!

2 comments:

Camille Minichino said...

One of the most useful blogs ever, Joanna.

And no thanks to me -- I forgot to post it for you. Thanks to more alert blog sisters who must have done it.

Not a good way to start the new year.
I shudder to think what else slipped through the first cracks of 2009.

Perhaps my word should be REMEMBER.

Monica Ferris said...

I know what my word is, but I'm not sharing. Good post.