Although last year I made my one resolution and unfortunately it didn't really stick. I wanted to meditate four days per week. Looking back over the year (because I have been tracking it, of course), I still averaged only two-three days per week. I'm not too worried though -- establishing a regular meditation practice is really hard -- and even meditating once a week is better than nothing.
There was one resolution that I made in 2017, however, that was technically not a New Year's resolution, but stuck a lot better and really changed my enjoyment of one particular aspect of my life. I decided early on in the year to finish every single book I started -- no exceptions. I really stuck to it and I enjoyed more books than I thought I would -- even the ones that I struggled to get into. I also just read one at a time, not moving on until it was done. Because of this tenacity I even may still make my goal of reading 30 books this year (I've just finished 28). So let me know if you have any really really short books you can recommend!
So what's the resolution for 2018? I am going to try taking Saturdays "off". What, you say? You work seven days a week? Well, not exactly.
Technically I work the typical five days a week, which is the work I get paid for. But, the problem with having a side hustle (or technically trying to have a side hustle) of writing books, is that when I'm not working for money, or have a date in the diary to be physically somewhere -- like going out to dinner with friends or going to the gym -- I feel like I should be working. I should be writing, or blogging, or doing something else to help advance this dream.
And often, I feel like it makes it harder to say yes to doing fun things. I'm afraid I'm becoming an enemy of fun. Particularly for the Hub who didn't realize he'd be marrying someone with a real job and a fake job!
Thing is, for me, writing is fun. Most of the time. And I wouldn't be doing my fake job if I didn't have some overwhelming compulsion to give it a try. But more and more I've been thinking that maybe I should give myself some breathing space once a week, to do some other things that might enhance my creativity.
It may not work. It may be better to be immersed every day. For a little bit of time at least. But let's see. Life is a big experiment and it's good to just give things a try.
I'll report back in a few months on how it's going. In the meantime, what's your New Year's resolution? Do you even make them?
Photo credit: marfis75 Disco via photopin (license)
Photo credit: NEW YEARS IN SAN FRANCISCO via photopin (license)
No comments