Today is my birthday. I have somewhat of a history of traveling on my birthdays and yet again I find myself on a plane heading towards the green mountains — I believe it is the 3rd time I’m am making this trip on this date. Vermont to me means family and the trip itself will be a future travelogue post. Today, I thought I’d spend the flight putting on e-paper my thoughts and resolutions for this year as a self-check and motivation to actually stick to them.
Resolution 1:I will blog at least once a week. I have a running list of topics and I think of musings and things to add at least once a day— dedicating some time to write and post will be a priority in the coming year.
Resolution 2: I will read one book a week. Taking an idea from Julien Smith I plan to start this week and finish 52 books by this day next year. Since losing my train commute and starting Grad school I have missed pleasure reading and I have wanted to get back to it. Setting an ambitious goal to work against hopefully will help reprioritize and make that happen. I have a rather long running list to work through and am excited by the prospect.
Resolution 3: I will cancel my 2nd cell to fund travel. I have been holding on to my Google Phone (cracked screen and all) and old, old cell phone number for entirely too long. This is entirely a #firstworldproblem but I am loathe to give it up. It isn’t worth it and I know it but there are a few things that I like better than the iPhone. Expect a future bitch-blog but I will be making the full switch in the next week. I have promised myself that the money I will save goes into a travel fund to be overseas next year on this date.
There. Those are the “I will”s. I have a few others that are less easy to quantify and track but some ideas for self improvement for the next year.
I will only “hell yes.” After turning down some potentially lucrative but also foreseeably arduous work this week this idea has been on my mind. It is perhaps the toughest idea to pin down exactly but it is definitely something I want to work on. Pulling from Derek Sivers and his “Hell Yeah” post, I want to start reorienting only towards the things that feel really, really right to me and committing to those things with my whole heart and efforts. Part of that is this missive and the resolutions above but it is also something that I want to work on in large and small ways for the next 365 days and beyond.
True to me. Closely related to the above is realizing that I’m still waiting for some guidance and direction from outside myself; wanting to orient myself to something (or someone) rather than a drive coming from within. Even though I expect to continue serving as niece-nanny for the next year, as I plan my next steps I also plan to be more self-directed.
I will be more honest. I am a white-liar and I need to stop it.
That is about all I think. I am so grateful and blessed to be where I am today. It was this time last year that I decided to go on this nanny adventure and looking abck at the last year it is amazing how many turns my road has taken because of that decision. I’m excited to get to the next phase and flavor but for now I’m going to appreciate this moment, enjoy a Vermont sunset and sip a fantastic local Trout River Boneyard Barleywine. I’m so lucky.
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