Is anyone else not overly ecstatic about the idea of “new year, new me” status updates, blog posts, and resolutions? I was recently discussing with a friend about how I don’t understand the significance of celebrating New Year’s Day and the idea behind “starting over” once a year. To me, these types of resolutions and thought patterns seem to fall down faster than they were constructed.
Although I usually try to fill a void in my life or change a habit when I spot it rather than waiting until January 1 to declare all the changes in my life, I wanted to share with you a few things I am going to try to be better at this year—and hopefully well past the year of 2014.
I am going to write more.
I am hoping this blog will help me be better at this. I have always been so entranced by the written word and storytelling. I used to write a lot more during high school and then fell out of the pattern once college came around. I started forming ideas for a novel (the few friends with whom I’ve shared the plot line tell me it’s going to be a best seller!) but that is going to take more much more time and energy than a blog will. So in between figuring out characters and conflict, this blog is hopefully going to help me share some of my favorite things with you.
I am going to help more people without expecting anything in return.
My friend Emily blogs over at Choosing To and she recently wrote about Selfless Sundays, where she does something good for someone else every Sunday. I think this is a fantastic idea and want to work on doing that, too. In a society where we’re only looking out for ourselves, it goes a long way to let someone (even a stranger) know you’re looking out for him/her, too.
I am going to send more snail mail.
Don’t get me wrong—I love email, texting, and FaceTime. But after being so heavily saturated with digital communication, getting a card in the mail with a handwritten note is like winning the lottery. I can’t believe how many young people don’t even know how to address an envelope or why we have zip codes. I’m going to send a handwritten note or card every other week this year to different people in my life, and hopefully to people with whom I’d like to reconnect. If you get a card, don’t expect to see cursive—I forget how to use that a long time ago!
I am going to read more.
During college, reading seemed like such a task because it was page after page, chapter after chapter of seemingly boring, dense content. But now, I finally have the time and desire to read for pleasure again. I bought a Kindle Paperwhite about a year ago and love it. I find myself reading books much faster since I can adjust the font size and leading (the space between the lines) to my comfort. I used to think I was such a slow reader but now I think the text was just too small in books. Although I’m not going to set a goal for a number of books to read, I would be happy with finishing about 50 this year.
What are you going to do?
Instead of telling me what your New Year’s resolutions are, what are you working on this year? Leave me a comment below so we can continue the conversation.