Somewhat shoddy self-portrait in the dress procured during the great Jessica Simpson incident (I better enjoy that dress, as it's my last purchase for the next 30 days...more below.)
Last year I bypassed creating formal resolutions altogether, save one. We came home from the hospital with Millie on New Year’s Eve, and that evening before bed I crafted my sole resolution – to savor her babyhood. Audrey’s first year was pretty overwhelming for me, and in that sort of low-level fog of intense sleep deprivation, constantly second guessing myself and the endless fixation on the next phase or milestone, I missed so many of the small, delightful happenings. So with Millie, I vowed to savor, embrace, remember and enjoy as much as possible about that first year no matter how hard, monotonous or tiring some of those moments might be, and I can honestly say (for the most part) that I accomplished it.
But I love creating full-blown resolutions, so I’ve put lots of thought into a more fleshed out set of goals this year. In the past, I’ve approached this task like I would a good to-do list, with a couple of easy-to-accomplish items that I can almost instantly cross-off, a few stretch goals and some that are so far-reaching that they usually get carried over from year to year, and that seems to be a good format for me.
In working on this year’s list, I found myself repeatedly coming back to both Rachel’s idea to pick a word to embrace and focus your energy upon as well as this quote by a favorite author of mine, Anne Dillard.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
So buoyed by these sentiments, I declare this the year of being Deliberate, and as such I plan to spend more days this year doing the following:
Last year I bypassed creating formal resolutions altogether, save one. We came home from the hospital with Millie on New Year’s Eve, and that evening before bed I crafted my sole resolution – to savor her babyhood. Audrey’s first year was pretty overwhelming for me, and in that sort of low-level fog of intense sleep deprivation, constantly second guessing myself and the endless fixation on the next phase or milestone, I missed so many of the small, delightful happenings. So with Millie, I vowed to savor, embrace, remember and enjoy as much as possible about that first year no matter how hard, monotonous or tiring some of those moments might be, and I can honestly say (for the most part) that I accomplished it.
But I love creating full-blown resolutions, so I’ve put lots of thought into a more fleshed out set of goals this year. In the past, I’ve approached this task like I would a good to-do list, with a couple of easy-to-accomplish items that I can almost instantly cross-off, a few stretch goals and some that are so far-reaching that they usually get carried over from year to year, and that seems to be a good format for me.
In working on this year’s list, I found myself repeatedly coming back to both Rachel’s idea to pick a word to embrace and focus your energy upon as well as this quote by a favorite author of mine, Anne Dillard.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
So buoyed by these sentiments, I declare this the year of being Deliberate, and as such I plan to spend more days this year doing the following:
- Going somewhere new – Marfa is at the top of this year’s list.
- Reading more novels
- Making something (anything really)
- Curbing my eco-sins – I’m referring specifically to my addiction to paper towels and my inability to find a viable solution to the loads of plastic bags I seem to amass from Target each week, which leads me to my next one.
- Acknowledging and addressing my addiction to Target -- Otherwise known as the Buy Less Stuff resolution. I’m actually going hard-core on this one by challenging myself to not buy anything new (besides necessities like food and gas) for the next 30 days.
- Embarking on some sort of self-improvement, specifically I’d like to:
- Take a photography class
- Master one new dish per month
- Take a regular yoga class
So...What are you hoping to do this year?
