Giving Up My New Year’s Resolutions

We should be allowed to set New Year’s Resolutions for other people.

This year, I decided to grant my New Year’s Resolutions to the public. I’m crowdsourcing my personal improvement plan. I asked those who know me, through several venues, what I should work on in the coming year.

Clearly, not every suggestion could be (or should have been) acted upon. For example, I am a strong proponent of gun regulation. So when a friend of mine who is an advocate of gun ownership said that I should purchase a gun, I declined (seriously, how dumb do you think I am?). Other suggestions set along the lines of “travel to places that I’m afraid of” – and while that’s a great idea, I am no longer afraid of traveling anywhere.

So after we boil out all the jokes and the obviously non-tenable, what Resolutions are left that the public has granted me? There are two.

1) Write more. This was actually a touching response, given the overwhelming number of positive responses towards it. I love writing, I always have. Lately, however, I’ve felt more and more that no one really wants to listen to the things I have to say. I am humbled to discover the opposite is true. So I’m going to work towards that.

2) Further reduce the time between when something happens that perturbs your emotional state and when you return to basic equilibrium. A Resolution from my friend Jeremy and given lots of support from others. This is a powerful suggestion since I tend to respond emotionally more often than I should. It’s very clearly the most useful “growth” pattern I can apply to myself. So I’m going to do it.