To Resolve or Not to Resolve, That Is the Question
In addition to getting ready for Christmas, this is the time of year when I contemplate a New Year’s resolution. In the past, I’ve resolved to do everything from losing weight to writing at least 1,000 words per day, every day. As my mother sometimes says, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Because, let’s face it, resolutions like these are tools of self-destruction. They’re often grand, unrealistic plans to perfect ourselves. They’re the big, bad “shoulds” of life, cudgels with which we can pound ourselves when we inevitably fail, in some respect, to live up to an ideal.
So last year, I decided to change my approach to New Year’s resolutions. I decided that they must NOT relate to the most important things in my life–my writing, my family, my personal growth. That’s right: I made no writing-related resolutions for 2008, and I won’t be making any for 2009, either.
Still, I like the idea of setting goals, of raising the bar on my personal efforts. I’ve set goals for the important areas of my life, including writing, but I’m calling them projects. Why? I’ll share that in a future post.
What about you? Do you set New Year’s resolutions? Do your resolutions relate to your writing? Share your successes, failures and thoughts about writing-related New Year’s resolutions.