2019 was a year of stress. Several months ago I told a group of girlfriends that all I wanted for Christmas was to take one weekend afternoon and shop Magazine street for local Christmas gifts, possibly with a friend but possibly alone. I did not manage it – I spent every December weekend frantically billing. I also worked on Christmas last year, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, and had extremely stressful work projects due the day before Thanksgiving and a crappy nasty email the day after Christmas. I’ve worked well over half the weekends this year, and I spent many days of my recent NYC vacation working. It’s time to stick a fork in this gal.
That’s all I will say on that front. Consider the unspoken resolution of Making This Better as my top priority. Here are the rest!
- Read books. All the books I want. Lots of books.
- Attend more of Jack’s basketball games, Liam’s guitar concerts, etc. More mundane kid stuff.
- Keep up the personal trainer. Improve my metrics – higher weights, more reps, keep up the boxing.
- More swimming. I do swim for exercise on occasion and I’d like to do more.
- I wonder if it’s time to commit to writing a novel? I know everyone has a novel in the works and it probably won’t go anywhere, but I really think I could write some slam bang mystery novel series. If I can resolve my unspoken resolution early, I will have time for that pursuit. Listen to this half-assed commitment! Forget it – I commit! I will write 15,000 words of a novel by the end of 2020.
- If I can resolve the unspoken resolution, I also would like to look into doing some sort of fitness trainer training. I am a bit intimidated by the fact that I absolutely do not look like a physically fit person, unless you look closely and see these baller quads . . . but then I think there are plenty of heavy people who would probably prefer a sort of fatter person at the helm, yeah? Like, sometimes it’s a bummer to work your ass off in a class and always be looking at someone who *looks* like a trainer – perfect – and know you’ll never achieve that. I’m likely overthinking. The point is I feel really renewed and happy at the gym and if there’s a way I could make it pay a few dollars instead of costing a few hundred, I’d prefer that!
- Meditate more. I didn’t do this last year but after reading Eat Pray Love I am all in on the meditation again.
- Do a silence retreat? This is a stretch goal. But I would love one weekend, maybe a long weekend, of silence and meditation.
- Make a real, from scratch Indian curry.
- Bake something unique and cool. GBBO is rubbing off on me.
These are all great goals! Just be gentle on yourself! I find that I totally beat myself up if I don’t meet my goals. 🙁
Long time reader, occasional commenter. Wanted to say I love your writing, and would be very excited to read any novel you write!
And, speaking of all the books, I read “Commonwealth” by Ann Patchett after you mentioned it here. Wonderful! Just read “A Visit From the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan, which was mind-blowingly good and reminded me a bit of “Commonwealth”. It came out a decade ago so I am behind the times. But, if like me, you hadn’t gotten around to this one yet, I could not recommend it more!
Good luck with your 2020 resolutions!
Here we are almost three months later and I finally have time to reply to comments! I’m so glad you read. I am leaning toward ancient Italy (Rome, Pompeii) as my setting. I am a Classics major so have always been fascinated with that stuff! hope you’re keeping well in this craziness.