I’ve been reading quite a bit lately on New Year’s Resolutions and how to make them stick. The consensus seems to be to focus on themes rather than specifics, stacking new habits on top of old ones and priming your environment for success. To concentrate on the process instead of the outcome, and to know your “why” — the motivation behind the goal.
So: Getting healthy vs. exercising daily, making coffee and adding morning stretches or whatever, and packing a lunch the night before so you make good choices.
According to my reading, if you’re doing something because you think you should, you’re probably not going to get as far as you will if you’re doing something for a specific reason — otherwise you’ll see it as deprivation. It’s the difference between being reactive and being proactive, if that makes sense.
I don’t know, I find all of this fascinating.
I’m still trying to hammer out my goals for the year and what implementing them would look like. That is perhaps another post for another time, but I will say that I’m leaning towards a theme of health — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Taking care of my stupid guts. Connection and introvert time.
That sort of thing. Eh, the year is long, I’m not rushed.
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Just in random news, I’ve been asking for world peace or an iPhone for decades now (wait, have iPhones even been around that long?) and … it looks like world peace is going to have to wait because Eric got me a phone for Christmas. It’s a BIG step up from my flip phone (well, technically a slide phone). I’m alarmed by how much I love this thing. It’s been so much easier to keep in touch with friends and family. Um, which means mostly Abby, who also got a phone for Christmas. Eric and Johanna are keeping their “dumb phones” for now. Eric is anti-technology so I don’t see him upgrading to a smartphone until he literally has no other choice. And Johanna doesn’t care.
Minimally 
As soon as I resolve to either start something or give something up I doom myself to failure. (I really suck at at Lent).
So, I am being deliberately vague about changes: however, even before the new year arrived, I had a vague notion to do less grumbling about my life and try to be more positive. It’s winter in the Great White North and this one is shaping up to be a doozy. Instead of complaining about it I am trying to focus on the positive and revelling in being able to spend a whole day reading or watching Netflix or whatever while storms rage outside. Summers here are amazing but busy and I feel guilty if I am not taking advantage of the lovely weather and going to the beach or gardening or whatever.
I shall try to take a page from Nature’s book and see winter as a time of rest and reflection, to appreciate the warmth of my woodstove and hearty soups and cups of cocoa, heating pads in bed and the stillness of the woods in winter. To actually live where I live rather than living in denial.
It’s only early January so wish me luck!
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I like it! Have some cocoa for me! (Lovely imagery, incidentally. Makes me want to be snowed in, although, not being used to that, I’m sure it would drive me crazy after a couple of days. But indeed … live where we live. That’s fantastic.)
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I got an iphone for the first time about a year and half ago after trying to get by without one and just use my old Nokia dumb phone but wow, the iphone is so convenient to have, I don’t think I could ever go back!
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I love mine so much — I think it’s just having one device for my music and calls, etc. And getting to add Bitmojis to my emails. AND being able to look something up without an internet connection.
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I’ve been reading your blog for a while and I never realized you and most of your immediate family have “dumb” phones! I have a flip phone still and felt like I was the only person left out there who didn’t have a smart phone. I’ve been holding tight but I think Verizon is going to force me onto a smart phone by cutting off their 3G network at the end of 2019. I’m sure I will love the convenience of a smart phone but my old phone works just fine and it seems like smart phones are way more expensive but don’t last as long 😦
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Ha ha! Yes, we’ve been slow to jump on that bandwagon because Eric is REALLY anti-data plan. We’ve all had the same phones since Abby was a freshman in high school … so 2013? … except for Johanna, who got her slide phone in 2016. (Sixth grade. Abby thought that was a rip off but times change.) Part of the fun of a dumb phone is all the looks you get when you pull it out in public. 😉 Abby and I got upgraded because her phone was on the fritz and my kids aren’t allowed to have better stuff than me. Our carrier hates us because we’ve had the same plan since 1995 and they really, really want us to upgrade to something way more expensive, but haven’t made us yet. Which is what Eric is waiting for, I think.
And yes — companies plan on their products to be obsolete in a couple of years so they can sell us new ones. What a load of crap.
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