I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. For me, they’ve always been too pregnant with the possibility of falling short of far too high self imposed standards.
“Why yes, of course I can totally positively transform my life in 12 months or less!”
Nope. Doesn’t work for me.
What does work for me is to occasionally, gently, remind myself that when I try things that I haven’t tried before, especially because I’ve been kind of afraid of to do so, or because I’ve been convinced that I wouldn’t be good at it, or thought it would take too much time, or any one of many other reasons, it usually turns pretty well.
It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can be a small thing. Funny to recollect the number of times the small things have had larger repercussions. Like a tiny force applied to a long lever.
Randall Munroe has it right – https://xkcd.com/264/ – and those (in particular one person whose opinions I value in almost every other aspect) who poo poo the meme-set tarballed into “Follow Your Bliss” have it wrong. At least as far as my life goes.
Yay following your bliss! Boo martyrdom!
What about 2015? I don’t know. At this point it looks like a year for harvesting the fruit planted by decisions made over the past year or so. Perhaps that’s what every year is all about.
It does help me to keep in mind exactly what I find engaging, fulfilling, joyful, stimulating, etc. Hedonic engineering. Sir Ken Robinson (without calling it that) has a thing or two to say on that score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDhhIghXxfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TAqSBMZDY8
http://www.aspenideas.org/session/sir-ken-robinson-element
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJAL21IE9fY
Hey, who was that dorky looking kid riding a hover-board and wearing an iridescent baseball cap?
Hmmm…
Unconventionaut 