Keeping Resolutions

Words are serious to me. They have weight and consequences. Unlike people who report abandoning resolutions within days of making them, I have annual lists of them going back many years and checkmarks next to most of, often all of, the items.

Oh, yes, that feels good! Here are some of my tips for keeping resolutions.

1) Take this process seriously. If you start with the attitude that this is just a New Year’s Eve party activity or that making resolutions is a hopeless pursuit, you’ve doomed the outcome. Encourage yourself by remembering that list and plan writing are famously known as central in goal accomplishment.

2) Be specific. A general aim like “get healthier” or “make more money” is too vague. “Eat more vegetables and fruit” and “add clients” are better. I often enumerate many methods to reach a significant or challenging goal. More structure is better than less. My yearly inventory of objectives is in outline form, including Roman numerals, followed by capital letters, followed by lower case letters: lots of detail, lots of tactics to try.

3) Revisit. One reason my resolutions work is that I look at them regularly. This keeps them fresh in my mind and encourages expenditure of effort on their behalf. Revisiting also allows me to recognize if I’ve accidentally let an endeavor creep in that was based in some momentary passion or desire to get approval from others. That doesn’t happen too often anymore, but that type of aspiration is easily crossed off the list, leaving more time and energy for my heartfelt endeavors. Do I really want to be in a high stress job, take on a big mortgage, spend a year in a cabin writing the Great American Novel, or own even more pets? Nope.

4) Refine. Allow re-wording, adding or editing details, or even eliminating ambitions. I like to look at resolutions as more like a group of plans or intentions, rather than wish lists. If an item is looking unrealistic or undesirable, I have no trouble letting it go. This is not a Herculean feat, an obstacle course, or an unchangeable commitment. The reason for writing resolutions, after all, is to have a better life. However, I never let go of an objective simply because it’s hard to reach. Instead, I let my attempts inform me. What doesn’t work is a great clue for what will succeed. Often getting more specific or more seriously committed solves the problems. Sometimes, it’s only a matter of ruling out strategies that don’t thrive until, finally, one or a few arrive that do!

5) Enjoy. When target hopes are attained, I take pride and pleasure in checking them off. It’s a reward. Looking back at years’ worth of these goals—most carried out—is a wonderful mood boost I use when I’m feeling tired, discouraged, or unsure.

Ariele Huff is a Seattle area writing teacher, a columnist and webhost with Northwest Prime Time, and a prolifically published author. Join her this quarter at Shoreline Senior Center, Edmonds Senior Center, Greenwood Senior Center, or Mountlake Terrace Senior Center for weekly groups. (Edmonds is biweekly.) Or take online classes through Everett Community College or Edmonds Parks Department or onsite writing classes at Cascadia or Everett Community Colleges or through Shoreline Community College’s Bridges to Shoreline progra. Request a class flyer at ariele@comcast.net.

SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).

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