The Dreaded Resolution

Most people reserve their resolutions for the brand New Year, if they make them at all. It’s what we’ve been conditioned to do since we were old enough to understand that what we’ve already been doing in the past year, well it just wasn’t quite good enough. We’ve also been taught that when we make these resolutions we need to get them done before the year ends. Why? We have no consequences if we don’t fulfill our yearly promises to ourselves, other than the fact that we feel like we’ve failed. But don’t worry; nobody else knows you’ve failed. Unless you told others what you’re resolutions were. Maybe that can be you’re resolution next year; don’t be stupid.

Even when we don’t speak our resolutions aloud; when we don’t accomplish them we feel like a failure, because our minds know. And our minds are the worst critics. They can fuck with us like nobody else can. So then we make the same resolutions the next year and we swear to our minds that we are going to finally accomplish them this year. It’s a never ending circle of failure. We eventually dread this feeling of failure so much that we give up making resolutions all together. We even make that a resolution, but we can’t keep that one either. We get brave after a few years and think. “I’m stronger now, I can do this!”
And that’s where I’m at now. I personally have never been too good w/ setting goals or following through with them. So making New Year’s resolutions just seems futile. Plus, accomplishing anything in only a year is only setting me up for failure. What I’ve discovered about myself towards the end of 2010 is that I need to make resolutions for ‘life’, not just for a year. What happens at the end of the year anyway? Do I get to go back to the way I was before? Or the way I still am, if I haven’t resolved the resolution? Why not just make one resolution for life? That way you have much more time to accomplish it, considering you live longer than a year. And if you fail, you only fail once instead of 40 more times or however many years you got left. And if you make a ‘life’ resolution instead, you have up until the day before you die to accomplish it. If you do die a failure, nobody’s there to tell you failed. Not even your mind can fuck with you then. And they will still say good shit about you when you’re gone; they always do. I don’t know who ‘they’ are but I’d sure like to meet ‘them’ now.

I asked my husband if he makes New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t believe we’ve been together for 18 years and never discussed if he makes resolutions. I know I’ve always told him what mine are but never thought twice about what his might be. Maybe I should put that on my resolution list; ‘Be less self absorbed.’ He said no he really doesn’t make resolutions. He tends to look back & reflect on things & then evaluate. He then says he will course correct. He said he doesn’t make a resolution to eat healthy, lose weight or anything in particular. He just tends to make sure he is going in the right direction for improvement. That makes sense. So instead of thinking I need to de-clutter, I need to work-out or do more of this or less of that, maybe I should just decide to simplify my life, which includes simplifying the whole resolution thing. Live simply. Be healthy. Enjoy life!

Live simply! Be healthy! Enjoy life! Living simply covers a lot of things from de-cluttering, buying less, wasting less, scheduling less; all kinds of things. Being healthy can cover eating right, working out, taking vitamins, washing your make-up off every night; again, a whole list of things. And enjoying life can mean allowing time to do more of what makes you happy and less of what doesn’t.

Less resolution’s means less pressure to accomplish, resolve and succeed. Don’t worry about failure and getting it right. Who cares what others think anyway? I never have. Just change course & correct what you can, which is basically what I’ve decided to do by making life resolutions instead.

So turn your life upside down, shake out the junk and turn your life around!
Here's to life resolutions & simplifying your life & being happy in 2011 and all the years that come after it!

~groovic

On Second Thought......

After much consideration & with advice from others, I’ve decided to delete my 2 previous posts. Those who know me, know I can speak w/o thinking, usually in a Sarah Silverman kind of way, but as you also know, I can ramble on aimlessly not really knowing what the hell I’m talking about. I’ve been down a road similar to this before & what I realized then was, nobody wants to hear it. People got their own shit to deal with, which I get. I don’t wanna hear about anyone else’s shit either. So rather than put my immediate personal thoughts out there for all to see, I am going to sit with my thoughts for awhile. I may or may not start another anonymous blog to keep track of my thoughts, which I may or may or may not share with you….. if you really care.

For now I will still blog here about random shit that hopefully keeps your interest, makes you laugh or just makes you say "what?" I think you like ‘My Mother’s Musings’ so I will try to keep it light hearted like that, however my mother would disagree about that being light hearted. In fact, now that she’s stumbled on to it, she’s going to “be careful from now on as to what I say.” But we’ll see about that. Something tells me she’s got a lot more where that came from.

Maybe you do like it, maybe you don’t. Don’t really care; all that matters is that I ‘think’ you like it. I may still give you little updates on my progress but not too heavy & not too personal. I’m still lookin’ out for #1 in 2011 & I still got my life resolutions that I’m workin’ on!

Happy New Year!

~groovic