my not-resolutions

Resolutions have never been my thing. I know some people get all excited about a fresh slate and decide to work out every day for the year or lose twenty pounds or whatever, but I know myself, and the idea of making a resolution to do something every day inspires rebellion, not excitement. My actual resolutions this year are likely to include things like “write ‘2016’ on checks, at least most of the time, at least by July.” (Since I write about one check a month, this should be OK, as long as I take my time.) Also, “Hear at least part of Adele’s ‘Hello’ every day that I leave my house.” Check.

At the same time, I’m learning the value of creating healthy habits. When something that’s good for me becomes automatic, my life becomes just a little easier and better. And seriously? I could use just a little easier most days.

So, since this year is about wonder for me, I was kind of brainstorming some ways to get positive habits going without too much trauma or rebellion or self-loathing, and what I’ve settled on is kind of mini-resolutions. Except not so resolutionish.

Every month, I’m going to try something new. And I’m going to see how many days I can do it for the month. No self-judgment if I miss days, just “let’s see how many I can get.” I’ve often heard that 21 days is how long it takes to establish a habit, so I figure trying something for a month (or most of it) should be enough to determine if something is working for me and, if so, at least sort of establish it as habit. This is self-improvement by way of “throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.” Should be a good time.

I need to be mindful of a couple of natural constraints. For instance, January’s nearly over, so I need to pick something that I can retroactively do daily. “Get up early.” Boom. I haven’t gotten up later than 6:30 since the 3rd (and the one day I woke as late as 6:30 was an anomaly and made for a pretty rough morning.) I’m going to call this a win, though it’ll be interesting to see how it works out when I rejoin real life, where adults are not plentiful and naps are not likely. This one sticks.

But there are a couple other things to consider. My energy level is going to drop steadily through July, then in August, I’ll have a baby at the beginning, start homeschooling Jenna (and maybe Katherine? Jury’s still out) at the end, and travel 12,000 miles in the middle. So… that one needs something really, really doable. Like drinking water. Yes. I believe water drinking will be August’s goal. Experience tells me that, in that first month of breastfeeding, my thirst is completely insatiable, so this shouldn’t even take any extra brainpower.

Also, December. December needs to be a really easy month, because it’s always insane between holidays, birthdays, and travel prep. Extra grace for the last month of 2016.

Want to see the rest of the list? I thought so.

(Actually, this is mostly for my reference. I’m not quite narcissistic enough to think my potential habits are fascinating reading for anyone but me. They’re not even terribly interesting to me, but I need to keep track of them, and this seems as good a place as any.)

Here are some things that are not currently daily habits for me, but I think might be useful:

• floss
• drink a smoothie
• move my body
• leave food on my plate at meals
• write “rambling pages.” (Stream-of-consciousness nonsense that tends to clear my head a bit.)
• two minutes of meditation
• write in a daily prayer journal
• take a picture with my big camera
• not yell
• not complain
• write a haiku
• read a poem
• work on scripture memorization
• write a note to a friend
• work on photo books (admission: this is not about self-care or positive habits so much as tackling a backlog that’s obscene. I’m on October of 2013 currently, I believe.)
• declutter for 10 minutes a day

I count 16. Out of 10 available months (since January and August are set.) My temptation at this point is to start assigning habits to months, but honestly? Who am I to decide in January what I’m going to want to do every single October day? Or even most of them? Pfft. Again, that kind of certainty makes me feel automatically rebellious. No better than a single “every day of 2016…” kind of resolution, as far as I’m concerned.

Current plan (obviously subject to change): I’ll pick next month’s goal toward the end of the current month. I’ll let you know how it goes. At this moment, most of those look totally doable and I want to start them all RIGHT NOW. Which is crazy, because that’s kind of a recipe for disaster and defeat. But, because we’re talking about just trying stuff in a low-key way, it’s likely I’ll try a little of this and a little of that even on months where those habits are not my focus. (For instance, I swear I’m not going to put off flossing until April or whenever it lands. Eew.)

For February?

I think I’ll try not to clean my plate at every meal. As a step toward mindful eating and a step away from food as a functional savior. (It’s not really that good at it anyway.)

Are you still reading? WHY? This post is kinda killing me with the navel-gazing and minutia. But at the same time, I’m hoping it makes you think a little about simple ways to bring in useful habits. Because we all could handle life just a little bit easier.  I’d love to hear what helpful little habits are working for you, and which you might like to try.