How do you guys feel about New Year’s Resolutions?
I personally am a fan. But then again, I am the sort of person who is always making lists about things I would like to try or areas where I would like to try harder. You could say that I set a resolution for myself more or less every month.
Following through on resolutions, however, is a different activity than setting them. There are plenty of goals that I set for myself that get discarded very soon after they are created.
Last week, for example, I decided that every day I was going to change out of my pajamas as soon as I woke up. I work from home and spend at least a few hours each day in Zoom meetings. You can regularly find me wearing a nice top paired with pajama bottoms because, really, who is going to see my lower half on camera? That being said, I get very fatigued throughout the day and thought that perhaps changing out of my pajamas entirely might help trick my brain out of some of this sleepiness.
I did great all last week! Monday through Friday, I broke out some work outfits–more specifically, work pants–that hadn’t seen the light of day since I last worked in an office. Then, on Saturday, I woke up with a sore throat, headache, fever, and insanely low blood pressure (anyone here ever had their blood pressure cuff read 60/44?). After a quick at-home test, it was determined that I have COVID.
I could easily blame my reverting back to wearing pajamas all day on COVID, but I think that excuse really only works for the first two days. It is now Tuesday at approximately 10:00AM, and I am still wearing a pair of red flannel pajamas. This is me. This is who I am–Pajama Girl, except for when I have professional meetings. I accept it.
There are some resolutions that I am quite capable of sticking to. It was probably about ten years ago that I told myself I wanted to fill an entire journal with my thoughts. I was a sporadic diary-keeper at that time but, since then, have filled eight notebooks with my thoughts and reflections (which will never see the light of day, thank you for asking). Going to the gym is another habit that I have been able to adopt with surprising regularity. For years, I enjoyed running on the treadmill. Within the past year or so, I have been more into incline walking, which gets me pouring sweat just the same but is less likely to afflict me with the unfortunate “runners trots” (look it up if you must).
My personal habits aside, I have found that most people I talk to are also hit-or-miss when it comes to resolutions. This is interesting when you stop to think about what the word “resolution” really means. By Oxford definition, it is “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” Key word here: firm. If someone or something is “resolute,” it is unshakeable. However, when most people adopt “resolutions,” it’s 50/50 on whether we will actually maintain them a few weeks into the year.
With all of this in mind, I have come to think of my desires for the upcoming year as a wishlist more so than a set of resolutions. And without further preamble, here are mine:
Try something different with my hair.
Read 40 books.
Blog monthly.
Journal weekly.
Finish first draft of The Book.
Bake more (develop a signature dessert, maybe???).
Call my grandma on the phone more often.
Visit at least one new National Park.
Visit at least one new city.
Buy less stuff.
Donate clothes I no longer wear.
Use my library card.
Hike at least once per month.
Hang out with friends who are not my husband at least once per month.
Listen to a new genre of music.
Find somewhere in Wheeling to volunteer for at least a day.
Plan a fun date night at least once a month.
Practice Spanish.
Set a daily time limit for social media.
Write more letters.
Walk or run every day.
Do yoga every week.
Limit myself to 200mg of caffeine per day (that’s two cups of coffee or four cups of tea).
Do something that scares me that is not otherwise specified on this list.
So this is my “wishlist” – we’ll not be calling them resolutions–for 2024. What’s yours?
Until next time,
Alexa
(I did not know what to put as a picture for this piece, so here is a picture of most of the books I read this year)