Resolutions--I has them

[trinityvixen]

I'm feeling...stuck. I think two weeks of vacation wherein I do almost nothing at all and barely leave the place I am residing have finally gotten to me. I'm not the type to get stir-crazy, not really--I could spend a weekend locked away at home and doing nothing and be utterly content. But two weeks? Is pushing it. I couldn't go anywhere in Oregon. I was so trashed from jet-lag from that trip that I couldn't barely leave the apartment in New York. (Hurrah! I have NO FOOD!) And when I went to my parents' place this weekend, I tended to park in places.

As a result, I'm feeling a need to start attacking my living environment, seeing as the weather is not exactly conducive to me running around outside much. Which brings me around to resolutions for the new year. I was fishing for others' resolutions this weekend, but no one had any great ones I could steal. I took a look at the last ones I made (two years ago, woo-hoo), and I rather like that they were productive yet not impossible. In keeping with that, I've decided on the following resolutions:

1. Clear out the bins under my bed
This is a huge project that will involve my, five years later, finally putting together a scrap book of photos from my trip to Australia. Better late than never. While the distance from the events means I'm almost sure to have forgotten every detail, I will be able to part with the junk I've stored up there, which is all for the good, really. I will also work on getting all my photos scanned in so I have digital backups. To think: if I'd been born only a few years later, I'd have had digital copies to begin with, which is really the most sensible thing for me, given how lazy I am about photographing shit in my life.

Huge project--projects, really, as I suspect the Australia trip isn't the only event collecting dust down there--but doable. Certainly doable within a freaking year.

2. Finish my sister's wedding present.
Only four years late on that one! I'm really, really close. I just need to go some place away from cats for a couple of weekends (i.e. upstate), queue up a hundred movies, and sit and sit and stitch and stitch. This one I'd like to have ready before her birthday in August (if I really push myself, I might have it done by her wedding anniversary in March). After I finish it, I then need to sit down with her and discuss what the shit she'd like me to do with them. I have chosen the most useless hobby, I swear. Cross-stitching is useful for two things: framing and making pillows. I wouldn't presume she wants these things framed (because then she's more or less obligated to hang them whether they're to her taste or not), and they're far too intricate for pillows. I was thinking, though, that working them in as panels in a quilt or a quillow (that's a one-square quilt block that is attached as the outside of a blanket pocket--it folds into a pillow with the nice design on the outside, and is used as a blanket with the nice design safely tucked away in the pouch). Must work on getting that done, first, and planning what to do with it, second.

3. Read twice as many books as last year.
I think I read about 20. That's pathetic. I have about six or seven that I've accumulated in the insanity of holiday busyness, so I can get off to a good running start. I just have to not let my time get shanghied by video games, TV, exercise, or movies too much. I think I can do it. I'd also be happy to just read about half again as many. So 30-40 books. Let's go team.

4. Lose 20 pounds.
This was the goal I set for myself when I first programmed my profile into the Wii Fit. I set a timeline of 6 months which is fastly coming to a close with all of about two pounds to show for it. (Which means zip-o given that you can fluctuate that much in any given day.) Whenever I fail at that resolution, I'll reprogram my goal to be for the year. The 20 isn't a number, it's a BMI thing. And while I have trouble with BMI standards, it is a useful benchmark even if it's an arbitrary one. We'll see.

5. Be a better person.
Ah, the vague one. I've actually been pondering this some time now, and a new year seems a perfect time to put into action some notions I've been entertaining. For one thing, I'd really like to pay a genuine compliment to someone every day. It's something I've considered a while now, sparked by a few genuine compliments I've received here and there. It would be so nice to be able to, without seeming like a crazy person (must work on delivery, delivery is key), tell someone (whether I know them or not) that they are particularly sharp, seem blissfully happy, or look especially well put together. I have to be careful not to just fish one out (i.e. avoid studied and saved compliments a la Mr. Collins), but to really mean it. I think that would really improve my mood, too.

This also covers vague life goals upon which I have no direction--career aspirations (hah!), personal fiscal responsibility, intellectual stimulation and enrichment, improved sociability--without making it seem like I've failed to accomplish anything if I have no specific incident I can furnish as proof.

Comments

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Frame the cross-stitching. Putting those as part of a pillow or quilt or anything else would be a total waste--the baby would be at them, something would get spilled, whatever. Put them in a really nice frame and don't mess with it. If they're not to her taste she can always hang them in the bathroom or something, but honestly? That's not your problem. :)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It is my problem given how much time I've spent on them! :P

But, no, you're right. In fact, I was thinking of either shadow-box framing them or doing the floating frame. Either way, I'll probably get someone to help me do it professionally at the craft store, where they know how to do that sort of thing.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

You know, the president apparently read 95 books last year....yeah, I don't believe that either, unless they're all like the length of "My Pet Goat"

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can believe it. I mean, you've got to do something during those month-long vacations, y'know.

[fairest.livejournal.com]

Awww. I read "the president" and thought "Barack Obama," and then you had to go and RUIN IT. :)

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if Obama reads like Jethrien--obsessively, ravenously and whenever there are nearby written words.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

How very admirable of him. How lucky for him that he wasn't busy enough to distract from his reading. / sarcasm

Honestly, I'd be happy to pad my reading with "light" reading--I did this year and in years past (though "My Pet Goat" would be pushing it) so long as it meant I read more. I'm falling out of the practice, and I was never very good about just picking up books and reading before. (I may have read more, but I was usually very picky and not prone to taking suggestions well.) So I could stand to just read more, and not magazines either.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I found this to be an interesting commentary on New Year's resolutions (despite the fact that I don't, in general, make them): http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1208116.html

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

A tad depressing even if it's accurate, but I liked that. That's why I set myself goals and directions instead of RESOLVED: I WILL DO THIS, constitution-style or anything. If I could look back on my last resolution, for example, and see that I've generally been more upbeat, gone out more times than not, that sort of thing? I'd call it a win.

The most important thing, as your link pointed out, is not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. I may not get all the junk cleared out from under my bed. But if I actually got one bin rearranged? I could start moving furniture around in my room, something I've wanted to do, but, for lack of storage options amenable to such a rearrangement, have not done. Just one bin, and I can have a new room! That's the other secret to my resolutions: tangible rewards for realistic goals make them much easier and much more attractive projects for me to tackle. (Like how cross-stitching alone requires a trip upstate--yay trip upstate!)

[shell524.livejournal.com]

This is why (as stupid and corporate as it sounds) resolutions really have to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-limited. :p

I learned this at one job or another over the years and it really does help make GOOD goals that are possible to actively work toward, and prevents the whole "Oops, I messed up. Guess that's it for that." mentality.

(This is why I've stopped putting numbers on my health/fitness goals, personally. I don't have much control over how much weight my body wants to let go of, but I CAN control how much I exercise and how well I eat.)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with that rubric except for the "measurable" part. Most of my goals happen to be measurable, yes, but the "generally improve myself as a person" one isn't, necessarily. The point there is, of course, to become that without being self-conscious and noticing. :)

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Measurability is important, but that doesn't mean that there aren't important goals that can't be easily measured. Too much of an insistence on measurability will either lead to not giving those goals the importance they deserve, or inventing some bs fake measurement for the goal that really just winds up obscuring it. In my opinion, anyway...

A goal without a measure is an aspiration. But those are still important!

BMI should never even be uttered except as a curse

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Now given that you rightfully have issues with BMI to begin with, perhaps a better goal setting mechanism would be the waist-hip ratio measure.

Re: BMI should never even be uttered except as a curse

[shell524.livejournal.com]

Waist-Hip isn't something you can control any better than BMI. If you're a certain shape, your WHR will never fall within the "acceptable" range. It may be a better predictor of health problems, but it's not something you can realistically do much ABOUT.

Re: BMI should never even be uttered except as a curse

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Honestly, measuring how wide my hips are relative to my waist doesn't really do me any good. Because I might be extremely blessed (not bloody likely) with a great ratio and still be, by my own measure, more overweight than I'd like. Now, granted, "more overweight than I'd like" can be an even more dangerous scale by which to judge oneself, but still.

The idea here is to use BMI, which is weight-related, as a relative guide, not as something to either castigate or congratulate myself. I could do just pounds, which is why I put in about 20 for my resolution, it doesn't really matter. It helps me, psychologically, however, to have some sort of metric. The BMI is meaningless as a health indicator, but it is a measure I can take, and one that is less depressing to notice than weight alone. It's like BMI is a ruler, not an MRI; it tells me only a fact--I am this or that BMI--not whether that's great or otherwise (except, of course, in its being less).