I decided to do a couple of things different this year as far as my resolutions for the new year are concerned. The first thing that's different is I went back and reviewed the resolutions I made last year to see how I did. I've never done this before so my resolutions each year are completely detached from the previous year. It made me think there's no overall plan for why I do resolutions and it just made sense to try and connect everything and see if I can make this a more serious endeavor.
The second thing that's different is I'm changing words. I've realized more and more lately that there's a lot of power in words so I tried to come up with a new word that describes what I'm doing instead of using the exact same word everybody else uses. For me, the word "resolution" is used so much and seems to belong to other people. In other words, it's not my word. I want to try and use a word that I make "mine" so it feels like it belongs to me.
So let's get started here. In case you're interested, here's what I wrote last January about my resolutions: 2011 Resolutions.
How'd I do?
RESOLUTION Number One: Stop being hard on myself by always apologizing for being wordy and accept that my brain is sometimes a "word-producing" machine on speed.
This one is a funny thing. I think my writing style is really different now from what it was in the past. If you go back and read some of my posts in the past, including that link I gave above, I think I've really tightened things up.
Maybe just making the resolution did something, like make me more conscious of how I write. Plus, I think I've been forced to change how I write for my college classes. There seems to be pretty universal intolerance by professors for wordiness and rambling!
RESOLUTION Number Two: I'm going to stop whining about doing housework and somehow learn to "enjoy" it.
Well. You can read this post Brad wrote and see how my sweetie helped me with this. All I can say is I no longer "whine" about doing housework because of the looming reward afterwards, but inwardly I still absolutely do not "enjoy" being stuck in the house scrubbing, polishing, vacuuming, dusting, etc. I think I've accepted the fact that this is never going to change and I'm no longer interested in working to make it more enjoyable.
But because of that looming reward after it's done, I'm no longer "whining" and I seem to get my assigned chores done in record time which gives me time to help Brad complete his. Somehow I think he knew this would be how it would work! LOL. A win-win for us both!
RESOLUTION Number Three: Stop wasting time staring at my pleasure-reading TBR list and come up with a system to read more this year.
Well, I completely forgot about this one. It was something I didn't give one ounce of thought to after I wrote it down. I suppose this is an example of something I was thinking about in the moment but was not really giving a lot of serious thought to.
I've been doing a great deal of "pleasure reading" this year but my system now is that I've identified a small group of book reviewers (which includes my buddies Joyfully Jay and Tom Webb, aka A Bear on Books) and the opinion of a number of friends who share the same interest in the types of books I like.
MY GRADE FOR 2012:
I'm pleased with my three "resolutions" from this past year. It's been a long time since I apologized for being "too wordy" or "rambling." I'm not "whining" about doing housework anymore (at least not out loud.. lol). And I've lightened up about my TBR list.
NOW ON TO 2013:
So my next post will be about the new word I've come up with for my "resolutions" this year. It's a word I like because it relates back to some things in my childhood, which as you probably know, was a lot about dealing with my hyperactivity and ADHD -- oh, and dealing with how everybody else handled my ADHD!
Anyway, the word I picked is one I like a lot and makes working on "resolutions" a lot more enjoyable. It might not work for everyone, but it's a word that has a lot of positive meaning to me and it's a word I picked for me, so it's a word I take pride in. I'll explain it in Part 2, along with three new "resolutions" I made for this year.
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