Many of us feel the need to make broad proclamations about the year ahead and the year’s start. There shall be weight loss. There shall be spin class. There shall be organized closets and trips to Fiji. Very often, those commandments go the same way as the ones against coveting and talking smack. You know: disregarded.
So although I’ve set some goals for myself for the coming year, I am moved to write the Anti-New-Year’s Resolutions post here are the year’s start (I am nothing if not a contrarian). Not because I think goals are bad, but because high, exacting expectations often set us up for failure. Let’s start the year with some self-love, shall we?
Unresolution # 1: I will understand that it’s hard to characterize a whole year by one (or a few) simple statement(s). I will work out. I will be lazy about working out. I will travel. I will stay home. These things and many more will be true in 2016, as they were in 2015.
Unresolution # 2: It’s better to be heading in the right direction fairly consistently than to achieve some splashy goal. So the fact that I write here most days means more than how many books I sell to publishers, even though the book sales are sexier to report.
Unresolution # 3: It is never wrong to love, even when it is misguided. Thinking otherwise will just make you curl up in self defense. It’s never a mistake to try, no matter how it turns out.
Unresolution # 4: Two steps forward and one step back is totally okay.
Unresolution # 5: Kindness is always better than rightness.
Unresolution # 6: Always be open to the magical idea that you may surprise yourself.
Unresolution # 7: We can’t say that 2016 will be a great year (or an awful one). It will most likely be at least a bit of both in any given moment. Better to wish for a year of strength to face anything.
That’s it. Enjoy your goals and work like mad to achieve them, as I will. But also remember that we’re here on Earth but a brief time, and that after glory and achievement fade, love and happiness remain. So go for the love every time.
May your 2016 be filled with all the best for you.
M
