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edenfallingDecember 31: New Year resolutions - yes, no, absolutely not ever never? (for rthstewart) [Tumblr crosspost]
Kind of! For example, my resolutions this year are to lose fifteen pounds and to get a decent job. (Also to write and post a minimum of 100,000 words of fiction, but I make that resolution every year so I'm not certain it properly counts anymore.) My resolutions last year were to reapply to college and register for a course, which I did, and to get a crockpot and start cooking real food more regularly, which I also did and will continue doing since I am now in the occasional-cooking habit.
The key points, I think, are to pick one or two reasonable goals, to plan a few simple things you can do to reach those goals, and to be willing to give yourself the entire year and accept that your commitment and progress will be fitful. The more goals you have, the more divided your time, attention, and motivation will be. People have limited stores of those things; don't overstretch. The more complicated your plan, the less likely you are to stick to it. It's a lot easier to change two habits than seven. Lastly, life does not proceed in an orderly line. You have to allow for setbacks and bad days and interruptions and so on. If you expect perfection, any minor problem may serve as an excuse to give up and not try to reach your goal at all. But if you keep slogging along, however winding the road, you may not reach exactly where you thought you were aiming, but you will at least get somewhere new and interesting. :-)
So if all I can find at first are cruddy part-time jobs, that's okay. They are steps on the path to an eventual good job, not signs of failure. And if it takes me a whole a year to lose that weight, hey, that's about how long it took me last time I decided to lose fifteen pounds, so I won't get discouraged en route.
And on that note, I have finished this meme. Happy New Year to you, one and all!
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December Talking Meme: All Days
rthstewart) [Tumblr crosspost]Kind of! For example, my resolutions this year are to lose fifteen pounds and to get a decent job. (Also to write and post a minimum of 100,000 words of fiction, but I make that resolution every year so I'm not certain it properly counts anymore.) My resolutions last year were to reapply to college and register for a course, which I did, and to get a crockpot and start cooking real food more regularly, which I also did and will continue doing since I am now in the occasional-cooking habit.
The key points, I think, are to pick one or two reasonable goals, to plan a few simple things you can do to reach those goals, and to be willing to give yourself the entire year and accept that your commitment and progress will be fitful. The more goals you have, the more divided your time, attention, and motivation will be. People have limited stores of those things; don't overstretch. The more complicated your plan, the less likely you are to stick to it. It's a lot easier to change two habits than seven. Lastly, life does not proceed in an orderly line. You have to allow for setbacks and bad days and interruptions and so on. If you expect perfection, any minor problem may serve as an excuse to give up and not try to reach your goal at all. But if you keep slogging along, however winding the road, you may not reach exactly where you thought you were aiming, but you will at least get somewhere new and interesting. :-)
So if all I can find at first are cruddy part-time jobs, that's okay. They are steps on the path to an eventual good job, not signs of failure. And if it takes me a whole a year to lose that weight, hey, that's about how long it took me last time I decided to lose fifteen pounds, so I won't get discouraged en route.
And on that note, I have finished this meme. Happy New Year to you, one and all!
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December Talking Meme: All Days
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-02 04:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-02 11:56 pm (UTC)It annoys me that I needed to make alose-fifteen-pounds-so-my-pants-fit-properly-again resolution, because I have done that already... but that was nine years ago and the weight crept back over time. *sigh* But hey, at least I know I can succeed. *wry*