The Anti-Resolution

There are 363 days left in the year 2013. Interesting thought, isn't it? Maybe if we looked at time based on what we have left and not what we have already done we would have more sense of urgency. Saying that today is the second day of the year makes it seem like it's "only" the second day and lots of time stretches out before us (which it does sort of, I mean a year is a long time). However, we all know how fast a year goes by and that it's quite misleading to think 2013 will last forever. If we say there are 363 days left, then 362, then 358, then 249, we get the sense that we should be doing something with our lives.My goal for this semester is to write a post per week. Even if it's one paragraph, I will write something. If I happen to write more, then high five! What an accomplishment! But I am going to write a post a week. I have something to say every week and my thoughts will only be forgotten if I don't write them down. I already have regrets about writing a total of ten journal entries since I went to college. That doesn't even cover one percent of the things I have thought, done, and wanted so badly to write about since I've been away. And while I intend to write a gigantic chunk of things from my first three semesters I know it will not be the same. It's been so long since I wrote in my journal on a regular basis that looking at my old diaries seems somewhat foreign and vintage, like an old chapter of myself that got lost in a moving box. This is something I never thought would happen.This year I am going back to journaling, and I will write a post every week while I am in school. Since school starts in exactly one week I don't have much time to procrastinate. Most people will read this and say, "Enough already! Why didn't she just title this My New Years Resolution and list all the things she's going to change about herself like the rest of us." Well, I didn't do that because I didn't want to. I think the idea of a resolution is a wonderful thing, it's admirable that people want to become better. But resolutions often go sour because we make them out of habit and not intention. We genuinely want to make the better changes that we claim to implement, but it's only because of the new year and the desire to feel new. Without an adequate amount of intention behind our change, there will be nothing to keep us making this change. Once the new year feeling wears out after a few weeks our change does too. Also, our resolutions are so big and sudden that it's difficult to ease into them.Resolutions can be made at anytime. Over the summer, I made a resolution to change the way I studied this year. Because I had a passion behind this change and made small steps to follow I was able to see that change become a reality. I must admit, the new year can be a perfect time to make changes: we are starting a new period of time and we are often coming out of a vacation or  break, so there's time to reflect on everything we want to do going forward. I am not against the practice of a new year's resolution, but I refuse to call it a resolution for fear that my well-intended change will fall into the watered down ocean of lost new year's dreams. I prefer to say I am going to DO. Simple enough, but quite effective.I wish everyone good luck with their new year's resolutions or DOs. I would love to know what kinds of things you all are hoping to improve in the new year.