I Resolve

If people make New Year's resolutions they probably will have given them up by now.

My theory is that people make unrealistic expectations of themselves and when they fail they feel bad and give up trying.

I should know. I'm part of the human race, too.

In college, there were a few different ways teachers assigned work. One syllabus had scheduled readings and papers due specific days and that was that. One teacher had specific readings and quizzes... but you didn't have to do them when they were scheduled for. You just had to fit them in by the end of term, so if you wanted to sit down and take the quizzes for every single day of class, ALL on the last day, you could do that. (I have no idea how the teacher managed his grading).

Then there was a teacher who had specific readings due for every class, and of those readings you had to choose 5 of them and do article reviews. You choice which articles struck your fancy.

What struck mine was that I could do the first 5 articles and be done writing for the term!

I'm a procrastinator. I totally am. So when that first article was due... I set to work. The night before.

As often as I can, I wait for the last moment to do a thing. But I have realized that when I am in control of my own timing on a thing it's an easier task to accomplish. But I have to have some structure or I flounder. So, teacher a, the strict syllabus was kinda a bummer to follow. I just did the readings or papers at the last second. Teacher b, just hand it all in by the end of term, was horrible! Because if everything can be due the last day, I would try to fulfill ALL the assignments at the last minute. Horrible.

Teacher c, assignments every class, but you pick when to write, worked phenomenally well for me!

Because I thrive on freedom with structure! I am still a procrastinator, but maybe because of that, I enjoy getting things done early.

So, back to the New Years resolutions. I like setting myself tasks for the year. They have to be challenging and achievable. And there are no shortcuts or getting around a thing.

If I said that I was going to run a mile every day, that would be really hard for me to follow through with. What if I got sick? (Which I did, for like the first 3 weeks of January!) No shortcuts. I would have to run, and if I didn't I would consider that resolution failed and I'd give it up. If I told myself I was going to run 365 miles in a year, I might end up leaving it until December and then realize that I have a lot to catch up on. But! If I said I was going to run 31 miles in January, and 28 in February and so on. If I only managed 15 in January due to illness, the year would not be over. I'd set out with a renewed focus to attain my goal for February.

I did not set myself a running goal this year. I only thought of resolutions at the end of December and I had a high fever so running was the last thing on my mind.

I set myself a reading and writing goal. One of the reasons these are completely attainable for me is because no matter how late I go to bed, I can still read and write. If I were heading to bed at 1am and hadn't run it would be nearly impossible to get me into running clothes and outside, especially in January.

My strategy is to put things on my pillow. Yes, I can move them without doing them, but that's not the point. It's a reminder.

In the morning, I make my bed and set my copy of the Word and my journal on my pillow. Usually I get my coffee and come back upstairs to read and then to write. But if meetings or other things drag me away, whenever I come in to my room I see my goals waiting for me. When I complete the task it gets moved from my pillow to my bedside table so that I know that I did it for the day.

In case anyone cares, my specific goal is two chapters of the Word a day and writing two pages by hand every day. I have a broader goal of creativity twice a month, which is quite broad indeed, but I know what I mean. Ask me if you like. A broader goal like this allows me the flexibility of choosing when in the month I complete a task and what exactly I do. If it were my only resolution I would not like it. It would be too ill-defined but because I have other daily goals it's kinda just another step.

I also like having some monthly goals like inktober or nanowrimo, or my made up September painting month. Not sure what I'll do this year, but we'll see!

For now, those two books are still sitting on my pillow and I want to get back to them before the day gets away from me.