I have one I’ve been thinking about. Something like, “Be less negative”, or “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Sometimes I just hear all the criticisms and cutting remarks flying out of my mouth and wonder how my husband can stand to be around me.
On the other hand, this usually happens when we’re watching something really stupid on TV, like Judge Judy or Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. Besides, American Idol is coming soon, and I really need the freedom to snark!
And now I’m fresh out of faults, so I guess my answer to the New Year’s resolution question would be no. What about you guys?
I’m going to try to lose weight and keep it off in the new year. Now that I no longer need a car to get around (hooray for moving to NYC!) I have excersize built into my daily routine just by walking everywhere I go so I am going to sign up for the 2008 weight loss thread and sign up for weight watchers online to see if I can actually get the whole weight thing under control.
I guess I ought to do that one.
My children say every topic I start is “bad news”. But then I like to talk about politics, which seems to be composed of arguments.
Mind:
Read two books by Thomas Cahill (How the Irish Saved Civilization and Gifts of the Jews).
Read Tale of the Alhambra.
Read A Thousand and One Nights.
Learn to knit with more than one colour. Body:
Continue to exercise regularly- mostly I do something physical at least 3-4 days per week, so I will move that up to 5 days per week.
Stretch more to become more limber as this really helps with posture and feeling more coordinated.
Belly dance! I got some new belly dance tapes, some zills, and a beautiful coin scarf to tie around my hips.
Continue learning to cook healthy meals, even when I am cooking for myself. This has been fun and I have realized that I am a pretty good cook! Soul:
Spend more time looking through my telescope to learn more about the moon and the stars.
Make a more concerted effort to let those in my life know I love and care for them.
Become less reclusive by getting out more and meeting people. This is hard for me as I love being at home.
I’m not generally one for making resolutions just because it’s a new year, but in this case, the new year brings with it new health benefits, so the timing is right.
I’d like to work on being more happy, specifically in my marriage. My husband and I aren’t on the brink of divorce or anything, but I’d be hard pressed to say that either one of us is truly happy with the way things are. We have a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old and, most days, it’s just a matter of getting through the day with everyone alive and intact and a minimum of arguing.
One of the difficulties I have with enacting any change is that I feel as though I’m the only one who is trying—but I fully recognize that this is a feeling, not a fact. So I get caught up in, “Well, if only x would do y and a would do b” which is naturally self-limiting and keeps me from taking responsibility for what I can do.
Anyhow, I need to figure out how to do something about all of this.
Oh, I like the idea of separating them into Mind/Body/Soul! I’ve stagnated with all three for a few years - my life is amazingly content, but in the absence of full time work or study I’ve become a bit aimless. I’m getting married next year and I’d like to enter into the marriage a better, more focused person than I am right now.
Mind - Write 100 words on my novel every day Body - Go to the gym at least twice a week Soul - Do something special every day (eg. help a stranger, call my parents, try a new recipe, buy something awesome)
no, because every year I end up breaking them anyway. I keep telling myself that “this is the year I will stop drinking”
Never happens…so what do I do? Drink more so I don’t think about my failed new year resolution.
On the brighter side, I did manage to stop biting my finger nails.
Knock it off with the “all about wonderful me” content when posting here. Just offer obscure facts, snarky opinions, sick jokes. I’m not interesting, but perhaps some of the stuff I post might be. That’s a more reasonable source of posting satisfaction (at least it seems to work for Cecil).
I don’t do resolutions because they always seem to backfire. For the last eight years I’ve had a slightly odd little tradition of picking a song that seems to exemplify the outlook on life that I’d like to cultivate for the next year. Then when I’m feeling sad or like I’m not accomplishing my goals, I listen to the song a few times. It’s been working out pretty well for me. 2008 will be “Beautiful World,” by Colin Hay. It’ll be perfect, if I can just give up those nasty cigarettes.
I’d like to get more exercise, not only to lose weight (but that is something I want) but specifically so that I can become a better dragon-boater. I started this sport this past summer, and I am so hooked, but I just don’t have the upper-body strength or endurance to be good at it. I’d like to change that, and it is a bigger motivator than just saying “exercise more.”
I also plan on being more organised in my studying. I have gone back to school for a second undergrad degree, and although I did alright this past term, I know I could have done better. I want to leave these classes knowing I learned something, not just having survived them!
And without going into details, there are some aspects of my social life and my marriage that I’d like to improve. We are content, but I think we can be happier, and in many cases, I know I’m the one that hesitates to do something new/go see people/whatever. I need to be more confident in myself, and go after the things I want.
Well seeing at this year I managed to put on three and a half stone (for reasons that were way beyond my control, I would like to add) next year is all about losing it again. The lynchpin of this plan is to start dieting with a company called Lighter Life, they offer what is essentially a starvation diet supplemented by protein shakes/energy bars/soups etc. I know someone at work who’s been on it and lost about a stone a month for seven months. Who knows, by this time next year I may even be a 30" waist again (crosses fingers).
I used to divide my resolutions into categories (Intellectual, Spiritual, Mental Health, Physical, etc) and have 5 for each category. And yes, I kept most of them.
But that kind of overachieving dreck no longer suits me. My biggest problem is being satisfied with what I’ve already got and who I already am.
So this year…
Do shikantaza meditation every morning before work.
That’s it.
Oh, and Slithy Tove has inspired me to create a similar SDMB-related resolution… Post less frequently about my personal life on the internet. Nobody cares, and I really shouldn’t either.
I’m going on a diet. At work I’ll be competing against two co-workers. We three, all female, decided it would be more fun this way. I lost a lot of weight last year, then let myself slide back to bad eating habits. So I’m pretty sure I can do it again, and the weekly weigh-ins will be fun.
What about you guys?