New Year’s resolutions have their origins in ancient Rome and Babylon, where the mythical Roman king Janus with his two faces would look both at the year past and the year to come (and after whom the first month of the Julian calendar is named) and the Babylonians would return any farm equipment they had borrowed the previous year and start anew. Regardless of their origins or traditions, the marking of a new year has always offered a unique opportunity for reflection and renewal across cultures and eras. Reviewing the disposition of previous resolutions is not nearly as popular as the declaration of new ones, but since I had the unexpectedly good fortune of actually keeping my first year-long resolution in 2009, I have the chance to do both with equal vigor as we roll headlong into 2010.My primary 2009 resolution was to write an essay a week, each week for a whole year - which turned my previously mundane blog into the essay project which you’re now reading. And to my great surprise, I actually completed this resolution - which inspired me to make a few more resolutions this year, in the hopes that I can repeat my previous success. I’m listing them here, so that I’ll have a few more people to be accountable to (should things get a little off track) and perhaps inspire you to some resolutions of your own.
Reading What I Preach
Some time ago, I stopped reading books. Which is not to say that I stopped reading. Actually I read every day - but I read the news, magazine articles, columns, essays and other short form prose, usually things that I can get through in a single sitting, a few stolen moments, or during an unexpected delay in doing something else. But between my ADD and my otherwise busy life, I stopped really reading books.
Now this is particularly hypocritical because I’m often telling people that want to become better writers that the one unavoidable prerequisite for great writing is great reading. And despite the fact that I endeavor to be a great writer, I haven’t done any great reading since I plowed through Olive Kittridge on my Kindle early last year.
So this year, I’ve resolved to read two books a month - and before you go sending a ton of suggestions, rest assured that my reading list is already quite full of suggestions, purchases and loaned books that have queued up as a result of my shoddy reading behavior over the preceding twelve months. I doubt I’ll be firing up book reviews here - but I may mention the titles from time to time. But that’s about two weeks per book, and as a part of this resolution, I’ve also resolved to spend a minimum of one hour per day reading (and to compensate I bought my TiVo a new 1TB hard drive to hold all the TV I’ll be missing).
Time to reconnect with the bookwormy dork that got me through middle school with great grades and no social life.
Three Things and the New Essay Project
With any project, if you don’t keep adapting it, it will become irrelevant, uninspired and uninteresting. And because I don’t want Tru Love to meet such a fate, they’ll be some changes coming to the blog and the project in the coming weeks.
First off, the essay project will be reduced in frequency to once monthly and, second, a new project called “Three Things” will take its place as my (at least) weekly creative output. Three Things will be a shorter version of my favorite thing: lists of three - sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, always just three things long - well, not counting subparts, etc. Perhaps it’s better just to assume it will be three-ish things. The essay project will be moved to once monthly to ensure the essays get a little more attention and cover bigger things. Additionally, I’ve resolved to start submitting the monthly essays for publication elsewhere to see if I can expand my audience beyond friends and family - though I truly appreciate the support.
I’m truly excited for the format change and I’m looking forward to using the lessons learned from last year’s essay project to have an even bigger and better year of writing (and publishing) in 2010!
Sundry
Then, of course, there are those resolutions which aren’t really a whole year long, and aren’t really the sort of thing that require a whole lot more explanation that just to list them:
- I’ve resolved to start eating healthier - a whole lot healthier - because I got way too close to 200 lbs., and no, they’re not making the pants in my size smaller all of a sudden...
- I’ve resolved to de-clutter my life; which mostly means throwing away a whole lot of stuff, except books, which everyone should keep forever...
- I’ve resolved to send more cards, because everyone likes getting them, and who am I kidding, I’ve got the time...
- I’ve resolved keep fighting back from my injury - because giving up sucks...
- I’ve resolved to save more and spend less - because that house I want isn’t going to buy itself...
- and finally, I’ve resolved to cut myself a little slack; it may not mean finally taking my first vacation, actually spending a whole weekend doing nothing, or gracefully taking a compliment, but hey, it’s a start.
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2010 isn’t the year we thought it would be when we were kids. There are no giant orbital space stations, self aware computers, or colonizations of other planets pending. There are no hover cars, or hover boards for that matter, we’re not wearing a whole lot of silver (if you don’t count the metallic print on Affliction t-shirts) and we still can’t “beam” ourselves anyplace. But it’s still an amazing time to be alive. We live in a world of constant wonder and change, where more than any other time in history, we can make ourselves anything we want to be. There’s no doubt that the last decade provided disappointingly few opportunities for optimism and hope, but as each new calendar appears, we are given just that. In this time of looking forward to endless possibilities, seize the chance to write down just a few of them; dream big and imagine that this might be the year that changes everything.