On New Year's Eve, we hosted a 4-course dinner party featuring a double dose of parsnips, chocolate mousse and unlimited seltzer from our new eco-friendly machine (apparently, either the key to sobriety if you're alternating or the ultimate downfall if you're mixing). Our group of friends has a penchant for going-around-the-table -- an awkwardly meaningful tradition in which everyone's gently required to speak on some topic. On birthdays, we sing praises; on Thanksgiving, we give thanks. On New Year's Eve, of course, it's resolutions. One way or another, people feel strongly about resolutions. The introspective among us spend December contemplating the best path to self-improvement while the hedonistic spurn the idea of resolving to do much of anything. The optimistic consider the possibilities while the pessimistic wonder: Why make a resolution I'm only bound to break?
Historically, I don't take resolutions very seriously. After vowing to leave my fingernails alone for close to 20 years, I'm starting to wonder about my ability to stick with it. Needless to say, I hadn't thought much about resolutions until the round robin got going. I sipped my seltzer, half listening to the speaker and half thinking of a passable resolution. I was impressed by my friends' thoughtful vows--to spend a summer abroad, to clean up a foul mouth and to eat more fresh produce. When the time came for me to speak, I mumbled something ill-conceived and washed it down with parsnip.
When the proverbial talking stick reached my friend Zoe, she mentioned a coworker's resolution formula: resolve to stop doing three things, start doing three things and continue doing three things. At first I thought this was trite and overly complex--a three-part cocktail for guaranteed failure come February--but later in the night I became less cynical and realized the formula makes good sense. It recognizes that you're doing things right, while leaving room for stops and starts in the new year. So, here's my cocktail:
Continue Doing...
1. Continue taking long NYC walks with or without destination.
2. Continue having dinner parties with good friends, food and drink.
3. Continue teaching vocabulary because kids really use it.
Start Doing...
1. Start trying a new recipe every week.
2. Start writing more fiction.
3. Start making phone calls to parents when their students do good things. On the topic of phone calls, call my grandparents because it makes them insanely happy (that was 3.5).
Stop Doing...
1. Stop buying things on sale for no reason except that they're on sale
2. Stop losing credit cards
3. And because maybe someday I will succeed: Stop picking my fingernails
A resolution I'm trying out: not purchasing a single item of clothing from now until the end of March. I THINK I CAN DO IT. Help motivate me! Ps - See you at the gym tonight? Cause that's another resolution... but more so that I don't feel like I'm wasting $60 a month rather than getting skinny.
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