- Posted by Colleen Murphy on February 14, 2010
Personally, the more abstract the promise I make to myself, the easier it is for me to believe that I’m keeping it. This is likely why politicians almost universally embrace the same approach.
As the years roll by, my New Year’s resolutions have become more and more abstract.
A First Try at Resolving this year looked something like:
· I will be a kinder, gentler version of myself.
· In 2010, my karma and my dharma will achieve harmony.
· I will be a better listener.
· I will nurture my own creativity and the creativity of those around me.
You see how the success of those promises might be difficult to quantify? If stuff like karma and dharma had actual chemical properties it would be MUCH easier to analyze whether or not they are in “harmony.” Alas, the closest formula I can devise is that they are one part bu****it and three parts deeply compelling je ne sais quoi. (I kind of believe in karma and dharma, and they also make me laugh. But I digress…)
Concrete resolutions have included:
· I will loose 27 lbs.
· I will NOT eat cake for breakfast.
· I will not covet my neighbor’s goods. (I struggle with this one, because some people have really funky, covet-worthy goods.)
· I will never utter the F word and will eschew all language of that ilk. (Except when alone in the car.)
· I will never raise my voice to the dog, even-if-she-has-to-go-out-to-pee-and-check-for wayward-raccoons-precisely-one-thousand-times-a-day.
· I will not buy any more fabric.
This year, on my Second Try at Resolving, I jotted down my addictions and bad habits, and decided which ones were worth keeping. Upon review, I found that the habits and addictions that don’t kill me only make me stronger.
· Caffeine: full addiction (keeper)
· Consuming mass quantities of junk food: bad habit (gotta go)
· Thrift shopping: bad habit (keeper) My goal is to continue to nurture this behavior till it achieves full addiction status.
· Fabric hoarding: addiction (keeper)
In the final analysis, eating too much junk food is actually the only culprit on the list that might actually kill me, so I’m backing slowly away—just as one might stealthily abandon a dangerous lover. Leaving this relationship has driven me into the arms of Weight Watchers.
Caffeine, studies prove, make my synapses fire with greater ease and purpose. Yeah. I need that.
Thrift shopping keeps me out of real stores, so it saves me money in the long run. (I can live with that logic, and my husband, who was born with pre-harmonized karma and dharma, also pretends to accept it.)
And fabric is the stuff I make beautiful things out of. I NEED to make beautiful things. It keeps me out of trouble AND allows me to leave a magical trail of beautiful things behind me as I move along through life--- quilting, rolling my eyes at the dog, blithely sipping my skinny latte, suppressing colorful language and covetous thoughts, and trolling the Goodwill.