A ‘Word Resolution’ and the New Year
If you’re of a certain age, then there is some likelihood that at one time or another you’ve entered a New Year making Resolutions of some kind. And continuing, when it came to your health, decades ago they may have been very goal focused like ‘loose XX pounds’, ‘run a marathon’, ‘drink less alcohol’, etc. I think you get the idea here. And of course, with age comes experience and it’s quite likely some of your goals were realized but the many were not. The result is reaching the point where you may have just stopped thinking about making a New Year’s Resolution. After all, you’ve been there and done that!
Then I came across something this year that really caught my attention and so far (granted it’s only the end of January) I’m finding this new approach rather effective. The idea of this approach is to pick a word (or as many words as you like) to reshape your year. Following up on this idea, I’ve heard all sorts of words people have chosen like curiosity, adventure, happy, kindness, purpose, etc. But this exercise really got me thinking. I kept trying on different words but none resonated with me until I stumbled across ‘my word for 2022’, especially as I will be moving out of my home in order to do a significant renovation.
So, my word is ‘Purge’ and it relates to everything I do.
For Instance, I will Purge…
All cupboards in my house. No point in storing items that I don’t use. Donate these items…like gently used clothing and dishes I’ve stored from my university days.
Unfocused guitar practice. Ensure I have a purpose each time I sit down to practice!
Resistance training that doesn’t work for me! I’ve tried everything to get myself to consistently resistance train and it finally occurred to me that I could purge my old approach to resistance training, the kind of approach one takes when making the effort to go to a gym. Well, because of the pandemic, one half of our garage is now a home gym and I seem to have a new simpler habit. On non-run days (every other day), when I return home from a morning hike, I leave my car outside and work out. Maybe only 3 exercises, but it’s a start and a start is better than nothing. Let’s see where I’m at in one months time…
Any activity that doesn’t bring me, my husband and or my family joy.
The thinking that something is a ‘crazy idea’ and instead embrace the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ thinking
This is an interesting experiment. I’m excited to see where my 2022 Word Resolution takes me!