My 6 New Year’s Resolutions

It’s January 1 and I have to say, I have a good feeling about this year.

Last year was a big bleurgh. I felt lost, with little sense of fun or passion. I was sleeping poorly, largely because I couldn’t breathe well at night. I felt tortured about work and what I should be doing. I was letting petty anxieties hold me back from things I had once loved.

But in the last months of the year, things started to change.

I finally decided to have three (pretty nasty) procedures to improve my breathing. I thought and wrote and pondered until I got clarity about work. I set about finding better ways of dealing with the things that worried me – including the nose surgery. (More on all of these in future posts.)

So as we start this new year, I feel excited, and I want to formalize the changes I’m making.

Here, then, are my New Year’s Resolutions…

1. Worry Less

This is so much more easily said that done!

But there are specific strategies I’ve been using (which I’ll share in the coming weeks), and they do make a difference.

2. Sleep Better

The biggest obstacle to sleeping well for me has been breathing, and once my nose has finished healing, I think this will right itself.

But I also must admit that caffeine has played a part. So I’m cutting down to two espresso shots in the morning and then *mumbles and coughs* switching to decaf.

3. Write More

I’m someone who needs good work to feel happy, and a profound lack of direction has plagued me for a long, long, long time.

I still can’t say I have that burning sense of passion about a path that I see and envy in others. But I do have a burning passion to write… something.

So this year, I shall write more. Hey look – I’ve started already. 🙂

4. (Re)Learn French

I love the language, style, cuisine, and existential philosophy of the French. And I have some schoolgirl French – enough to annoyingly translate when someone says something simple in French in a film or TV show.

And this year I’m going to become even more annoying by taking French lessons at the Alliance Francaise. Le yay!

5. Be Present

I’m always somewhere else in my head, and I miss many of the pleasures of the moment.

Instead, this year I’m practicing mindfulness – experiencing where I am, being with who I’m with, doing what I’m doing. It’s going to be hard!

6. Do Cool Things With Friends

I also have a bunch of things I want to do with specific friends – plays, art exhibitions, maybe the ballet.

Now that my post-surgical convalescence is ending and I’m allowed to return to the regular scheduled programming of my life, I’m starting to make dates with my friends – and on the agenda is cool things we can do together.

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So that’s me.

How about you? What would you like to start, stop, do more, or do less in 2015?
I’d love to know!