I can't think of a single time in my life where I have seriously sat down and thought about what I want to resolve to do in the new year. Not in a holier than thou, what's the point in resolutions, the idea of a new year, new start is just an arbitrary denotation of the passing of time sort of way-- actually, I do always make resolutions, sort of, I just never think about it or officially declare anything. This is probably because while I'm the kind of person who frequently has grand ideas and expectations for herself, I'm also the kind of person who moves onto the next grand idea within two weeks. While I always have the same general interests, what's getting me excited tends to go in phases. I used to feel like I was annoying and flaky, but I moved on from that.
...Get it? I WAS FLAKY ABOUT BEING FLAKY. LIKE. THAT'S FUNNY!
And really, how am I supposed to predict the course of an entire year to make goals? Last year, I did things I couldn't have ever guessed I would have gotten the chance to do. Last year, I was a photo double and stand in for a film, which a) I didn't know was a thing this time last year and b) provided me with a much cooler ice breaker fun fact than "I'm half-Greek."
My point is that sometimes you don't know what you really want to accomplish until you do it.
My real point is that I suck at follow through, but I'm really good at excusing myself for it.
But this year, I resolve to make resolutions my attention span can handle.
1. Move to a bigger city. This is a cop out, as it's something that's already like a 75% done thing. But whatever there are no rules, there are no resolution police IT'S FINE.
2. Write more. Finish the first draft of Thing I Have That Sort of Resembles A Novel I Think? Edit that draft. Find critique partners. Edit some more. By December, try to have something that wouldn't embarrass me if I were to start querying agents. Query agents. Maybe write a short story and try to get that published. I'm sick of thinking of writing as a someday thing.
3. Keep a blog for at least a month but preferably longer than that. I've had so many failed blog attempts I literally cannot count them anymore. I've tried to music blog, pop culture blog, film blog, fashion blog. Yet, I have had a livejournal that I've kept fairly active for 7 years (stop laughing, I have a lot of feelings), a twitter I use like an on-going conversation with someone who deeply cares about the minute details of my day, and tumblr where I reblog quite possibly everything. So I know I'm capable; I'm just capable of talking about myself, not things that are globally relevant or remote academic. So I'm not going to promise that this blog will be a thing, but I think if I do it with the idea that it doesn't have to be anything other than writing with myself as the character, maybe I'll do it.
4. Finished Lost. I typed that thinking it was going to be a joke resolution, but when I did I realized I was completely serious. I never watched the show when it aired, but the whole series is on Netflix. I'm almost done with season 2, and I'm sucked in enough that I feel like I need to see this through. Breaks for emotional detachment are both acceptable and necessary.
So there. No huge, immeasurable goals for my character or anything, but I am going to do those things! All of those things! For at least a month I will try to do those things. And damn the attention span that says I won't! Internet, I'm counting on you to hold me to this.
(for the record, as I write this, I'm procrastinating writing the scene I said I'd get done today AND the next episode of Lost in my Netflix queue.)
No comments:
Post a Comment