To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one's own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat. - Plato
I warred with myself this year over whether I should make New Year's resolutions. I came across several articles denouncing the practice. And I began rationalizing. I could skip the empty promises this year. After all, I've abandoned more goals than I've met in recent years. No more racing the clock. No more disappointing myself. Wonderful liberation from the feeling of imminent failure.
That is, until I was honest with myself and acknowledged that I recycle these same goals each year because I desire to achieve them. And the avoidance of making a list, the hesitance to commit the goals to paper was essentially allowing myself to fail in a different way - failure to change bad habits, failure to grow as a person, failure to strive for success...
So this year I made those same resolutions (with a few tweaks). And I made them SMART, just like I've taught others to do. Because if I were to not put them in a list this year, it would be accepting that my procrastinating nature, my organizational deficits and all-or-nothing thinking will keep me from ever fulfilling them. And I can't accept that. I am a work in progress. And resolutions kept or not, those traits will stop defining me and keeping me from making the needed transformation into the person I want to be.
This blog will track my progress; not just of my resolutions for 2011, but of my metamorphosis from the college grad in perpetual limbo into a with-it housewife and mother.
That is, until I was honest with myself and acknowledged that I recycle these same goals each year because I desire to achieve them. And the avoidance of making a list, the hesitance to commit the goals to paper was essentially allowing myself to fail in a different way - failure to change bad habits, failure to grow as a person, failure to strive for success...
So this year I made those same resolutions (with a few tweaks). And I made them SMART, just like I've taught others to do. Because if I were to not put them in a list this year, it would be accepting that my procrastinating nature, my organizational deficits and all-or-nothing thinking will keep me from ever fulfilling them. And I can't accept that. I am a work in progress. And resolutions kept or not, those traits will stop defining me and keeping me from making the needed transformation into the person I want to be.
This blog will track my progress; not just of my resolutions for 2011, but of my metamorphosis from the college grad in perpetual limbo into a with-it housewife and mother.
