A New Year

2009.  The only things in my life that turn over with the new year (besides my calendars) are work-related.  Do my taxes, sit with my boss and talk about how to improve upon 2008 in 2009.  Other than that, today is just another day. 

I don’t believe in “new year’s resolutions” – what makes the first day of the calendar year different from any other day in which I might resolve to change something?  As I walk through life, if I see something that needs changing, I change it.  I was going to say “try to change it”, but Yoda’s voice popped into my head: “Do or do not; there is no try”.  And that’s pretty much how I feel.  I don’t really believe in resolutions in general, they’re too big and encompassing and too much of an opportunity for “failure”. 

For me, change takes place over time in small increments.  I do things in a slightly different manner and try not to get too frustrated when I slip back into old habits/behaviors.  It’s really those slips that mark how the change is taking place anyway:  they get farther and farther apart and then one day I look back and I’m different.  I’ve changed, but don’t remember exactly when it happened.

That said, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t pass along some of the interesting things I’ve seen regarding resolutions for 2009.  While I may not look at 1/1/9 as an auspicious opportunity to begin overall life-changes, it’s probably the best day of year to read about what other people are planning to change and how they’re planning to do it:

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits (a blog to which I subscribe) has a good post here, in which he talks about his “Four Commandments”.  He started with 12, but Leo’s an avowed minimalist and had to cut the number down.  Leo’s post is mostly a piggyback of Gretchen Rubin’s blog The Happiness Project, specifically her New Year’s Resolution/Personal Commandments post.  Gretchen has Twelve Commandments – which you can see in her left-hand sidebar.

So that’s me piggybacking on Leo’s piggyback of Gretchen. 

Again, “today is the first day of the rest of my life” isn’t just for 1/1/-, it’s an everyday thing. 

Caveat:  Trying to change a whole bunch of things at once is way too frustrating for me.  I’m usually only working on changing (acquiring or removing) one or two habits at a time – that way, I can be mindful of the opportunities for change (and I won’t forget what and why I wanted to change in the first place).  For example, in the last month or so, I’ve spent a little bit of time every day working on getting this blog set up (it’s birthday is 12/5/8).  My goal is one regular post per day, and that I stay a couple of days ahead so that I’m not just posting “what happened to me yesterday” in a stream-of-consciousness format, just to keep the RSSers happy.  So far, I’m doing ok, though there have been nights that I’ve been up a bit late trying to get tomorrow’s post ready.  ;-)

Tagged as: Change, Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Project, Leo Babauta, New Year's Resolution, Yoda, Zen Habits