Sunday, January 01, 2023

Hello 2023

Happy New Year! 

I have had such a bad run of success with New Year's resolutions/intentions/goals that I decided to try something different this year. I wrote a list of all the things I'd like to improve upon. I did this quickly, without thinking too much about it. I figured this would get me the list of things that are most on my mind. Then I looked at the list to see if there were any themes. And there were - three themes emerged:

- Own my age

- Make healthier habits

- Enjoy life more

My plan is to try to let these three themes guide my decisions in 2023. Petunia wanted a specific "wellness journal" for Christmas. My sister and I got our wires crossed and both bought it for her. I was too lazy to take the one I bought back, so I gave Petunia the cash and kept the journal for myself. It is not at all what I'd have picked if I went shopping for such a thing, but it will do. I needed something like it to track my diet and sleep as I try to identify possible triggers for the supraventricular tachycardia episodes and so I will use it for that and also for setting monthly goals for my three themes. We'll see if that helps me actually do the things I want to do this year!

What do the themes mean? Well, owning my age is the category that encompasses things on my list like "find a new 'uniform' now that my old one isn't so flattering anymore" (my "uniform" is my go to easy type of outfit - I had one for casual and one for work. Both need updating.) Making healthier habits is probably self-explanatory. It includes things like "do something active for at least 10 minutes every day" (I feel so much better, physically and mentally, when I do this!) and "decrease my alcohol intake" (it crept up in the lockdown phase of the pandemic and I never did a post-pandemic reset - now is the time). Enjoy life more has things like my ever popular "take more walks on the beach" and "read more" - but also "actually do all the things on our family fun list" (our performance in 2022 was abysmal). 

We'll see how this system works. Maybe if I do well with it, I'll be shopping for a wellness journal of my own next December!

5 comments:

  1. I've been struggling with owning my age. I get these random burst of fury at the "unfairness" of not being young anymore. I feel like I've done well in life, pretty much did everything that I set out to do, but I also wish I could go back to my 20-yo self and slap myself silly at the stuff and people I allowed to wear me down, erode my confidence, and make me waste those precious years of boundless energy and effortless hotness (I never thought I looked good at the time, by the way, but now I look at the pics and think "Damn!").

    Someone on Twitter said that the best advice to young women is to completely ignore men. To pursue their arts, sports, professions, have fun with friends, but not invest any time into men's attention or approval, because all it does is waste a woman's youth. It's so very true.
    https://twitter.com/freyafirst/status/1607211565580980225?s=20

    Anyway, your themes are wonderful and certainly excellent to organize this year around! Good luck!

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    1. Thanks! I'm mostly good with being 50, although you are right about not appreciating how good I looked in my 20s (and even 30s)! Oh well. Presumably, when I am 80 I will think I didn't appreciate how good I looked in my 50s!

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  2. Good luck with everything!

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  3. I used to remember that in my 20s and 30s, I used to spend that last week of the year planning all my next year goals. It was all fun stuff like places I’d like to travel to or hobbies I’ve not yet tried.

    Now, I wish I had the clarity of mind to actually be able to think clearly about these things. I made significant progress on getting healthy after Covid and lost almost 40 pounds only to put it all back on when my mom went on hospice. Get restful sleep is on my bucket list and will help every other aspect of my life but I’m not sure how I can fix this while caregiving at night.

    I will say, I felt So much better lighter, my joints and heart especially, so I don’t want to throw the towel in and quit that goal. Although looking good used to be the primary motivator, at our age, feeling good is the bigger prize.
    I’ve never dieted and most of my life didn’t really need to, but I can now 100% say after 1 attempt, that very restrictive dieting is not sustainable. Small lifestyle changes is what I used to do and I need to get back to that. It’s just much harder to see progress quickly as someone near 50.

    I wish you great success on achieving your goals. I’ll end with my favorite made up annual goal exercise: try 1 new thing outside of work, learn one new skill inside of work, go to a place you’ve never been before. Stamp your passport at least once a year.

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