Saturday, December 31, 2016

366. The End and the Beginning

Screw you, 2016. I made it. I’m going on three years of completing my New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s a rundown of the last few years:

2014: Do 25,000 pushups over the year
2015: Write 500 letters to people
2016: Log 500 miles running, write 366 blog posts

I’m going to give some unsolicited advice about accomplishing New Year’s Resolutions: make them a numbers game. You need to do something that can be tracked and logged so you can keep your progress. Just saying, “I’m going to read more books” isn’t going to do anything for you. You should probably say, “I’m going to read 25 books.”

Anyways, I was a little worried about having more than one resolution to accomplish this year. I slowed down at times. I didn’t run as much in the late summer because it was ridiculously hot and I think I injured myself. I also got a little bogged down by blogging October and November, hence writing over 60 posts this month. I was thinking so much about the election that I just didn’t want to write about it anymore. I also reduced my consumption of news by quite a bit over that period.

I’ll say that I learned one big thing over this year: writing and running are big parts of my life. These are things I need in my existence. I don’t think I need either of these everyday, but I know when I do need them.

So that brings us to 2017. I’ve been thinking about what to do. Usually if I do something physical or writing, I’ll probably be able to accomplish it. I had a list at first, but I’m already on my way to accomplishing two of those things, so it didn’t feel fair. My original list was: go to Spain (heading there in late April), run a half marathon (I did run 13.1 miles the other day), and submit stuff to the Modern Love column (that will be part of the updated list.)

After a little thought, here are the 2017 New Year’s Resolutions:

  1. No social media on Sundays. Social media consistently ranks as one of my least favorite things about life, yet I continue to take part in it. I wish I had some reason other than that it’s addicting and mindless and allows us to escape out of our dull present life for a few (or many) minutes. I can think of few, if any, times that I’ve needed social media. And Sundays are a good day to reflect. I also have newspapers and books that I want to read. So, I don’t want to waste my time on those good days.

  1. One hour of writing, preferably on Mondays at 7 p.m., at a coffee shop/bar somewhere. I want to keep writing. This will be a good way to keep me motivated through those times. People always say they want to do something or other, but they make no plans on how to accomplish x, y, or z. I have a few places where I want to submit essays. So this will be a good time to keep track and use a certain time and space to write.
  2. Run a half marathon. This is pretty simple. I’m not 100 percent sure which one I’d like to do, but I think this is something that can be hashed out at a later date.

Your move, 2017.

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