How do you begin your list of resolutions? I will… I won’t… Or some of each?
Okay… it’s February already. But shouldn’t New Year’s resolutions survive at least the first month? I know I’m still thinking mine through…
Last November I wrote a goal (and publicized it at 43 Things) to declutter my workroom. I don’t function well in clutter — it at least has to be contained behind closed doors. 
I know that about me; therefore, in order to pursue any of the coming year’s goals, that one had to be tackled.
It’s done.
Time to consider what’s next:
What do I want in 2009? What am I willing to do to get it? Become it? Do it?
What am I willing not to do?
Do New Year’s resolutions begin with I will, or I won’t? Or both?
Should I write them down? Or just think about them?
Do I begin? When? How?
When Christmas season 2009 gets here — which seems a lifetime away from today, unless you reflect on how quickly January flitted through our lives! — what will we wish we had done, or become? What will we wish we could have, yet we don’t have because once again we didn’t earn it?
Do we wish these things without planning the changes we must make, the steps we must take, in order to earn our wishes?
Who, then, is responsible for where we will be as our calendar pages turn?
I ask these questions because I think about them. And I wonder how many opportunities pass me by because my days are filled with wishing and wondering instead of planning and doing.
The bottom line of such thoughts, for me, is to turn my resolutions into goals, clearly written and posted just inside a frequently opened door at my eye-level. It has become an outline, not a daily must-do list, but a list of habits to change, projects to pursue, and yes, sometimes daily activities to bring those about.
“As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behavior. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behavior. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.”
Thank you all so much for responding to my last post How Do You Find the Time to…? You’ve helped me think. And for that I’m giving you some home made blackberry jellies. Help yourself to a jar……..
One of my on-going goals is to grow as a digital artist, and bring credibility to my work. This oil painting was done in Painter X as part of a Weekend Drawing Event at WetCanvas.
My oil brush came from David Gell’s Living Oils Brush Library. (Thank you David.)
How do you tackle your 2009 resolutions? Are they still active a month into the new year?
Thanks for stopping by — help yourself to the coffee………..
Barb
P.S. You can subsribe to new blog posts in your email in the box above, right under the coffee cup. (I don’t share addresses with anyone!)
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Not a good one for me to comment on. But I must tell you I love your painting! It reminds me of my moms homemade jams and jellies that she gives out every Christmas
Anita
I really like this painting, too, and I plan to check out the brushes you have cited. So far my plan to take more photos and make more art in 2009 has worked out well. A month gone already! Eek.
This year instead of making resolutions I decided to clear the deck, so to speak, having gotten behind on EVERYTHING with piles of papers and half finished books all over the place. So on January 1st I made an organized list. That was a start. Right? the list included 95 things. While I have crossed out 3 I think I’ve added 4 or 5. Am I hopeless? Well I do have the list now.
Thanks for the beautiful blackberry jam but I think my favorite part of this quote is the John Maxwell quote. I need to embody my thoughts to make them a reality. I can get so immersed in the pondering and plotting that I never get to the doing.
I do make resolutions but not according to the calendar. I make my resolutions according to how I feel physically and emotionally. If I am not happy or am uncomfortable, then I need to make a change. Hopefully, I can make the transition from the thinking to the doing!
hi barb,
I came over from wet canvas. thanks for your encouraging comments for my paintings and for visiting my blog. I am happy to have found your blog. I spent time looking through your articles and found your style of writing very interesting and inspiring.Your paintings are wonderful.I am surely going to visit your blog often.
sema
Thanks for the jelly; yum yum. And the idea as well – monthly resolutions rather than yearly. More chances of actually getting some change accomplished!
What a nice site you have, I will be stopping by again. Thanks for your comment on mine. I agree 50’s Rock&Roll is the best , forget dusting.!!!!
You didn’t see me because you were so focused on doing your goals for ‘09, but I just came by to have some French Roast coffee from Starbuck’s (brewed, of course, in your kitchen) and took a big spoon out of your drawer……and guess what I did with it! The jelly is scrumptuous! Now….you’ve got me thinking about my goals…..hmmmm.
Okay…..I have to admit, I did make one goal for the year so far…..to clean out all my drawers, cabinets, and closets….one a day for as long as it takes, which will take until the end of the summer! I started with my bedroom closet and found so many clothes and shoes I’d forgotten I had……whew! Jack’s so happy I’ve saved him the money I’d have spent by continuing to replenish what was already there! Thanks, sister dear, from both Jack and me, for the idea!!
Whoa, Nita — I don’t think I came up with the idea to clean something! Did I???
Well, maybe I did, since I don’t well in clutter.
Anyway, congrats on all your “new” clothes! What fun… And wipe that jelly off your chin.
P.S. If you all saw how pretty and fastidious my sister is, you’d know she’s kidding to a point, but only a point, and she’d NEVER have jelly on her chin!
Thank you, Anita. You know, even a step outside on a snowy day when every cell in your body says stay put is a goal achieved. I have days like that — I just didn’t write about them here.
Your adventures at the Carriage House have taken you into a new world of purpose and goal-achieving success. I hope you don’t mind my sharing that here.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by, and for your friendship.
My reaction exactly, Karol — EEK! — to the fast pace of passing weeks.
Hopeless, Adele? NO! I think the list is bottomless for soul and knowledge seekers. Which you are. Right — you do have the list now, so you have something to check against when you get that feeling of overwhelming paper piles. (At least that’s how I feel.)
Bean, how very well-stated. Thank you!
Thank so much, Sema, for coming by. Yes, I did go to your blog — I was so taken with the portrait you painted on the maritime chart paper. I would encourage others to visit your art work.
You’re welcome, Swati — next time I’ll put out some English muffins to toast with your jelly. Doesn’t drip off the spoon so easily.
Yes, month to month sounds do-able, doesn’t it?
Thanks Domenique, for stopping in. I encourage you all to visit Domenique’s art work. She may give you music to dance to…
Now, just let me say I aplogize about my comments not being right up under yours, but soon I hope to learn how to alter my blog to allow that.
I so appreciate all of you…
I have been rereading this post and the comments and trying to come up with a response. I will just say that I enjoyed the many reads.
Carol
Carol, I sometimes think this is just a continuing issue — we rise each morning with at least a mental list of what will fill our day. My purpose in thinking these things through is to learn to focus a bit more. Maybe I should just limit my resolution to “focus more in 2009). Then, when December comes, I’ll have done the thing I focused on. We’ll see.
Thank you so much for coming by and letting us know you were here.