New Year's Resolutions: 4

Side note: In the past week or so, I’ve been shocked and gratified to get a few comments from people that I actually don’t know personally. (Thanks, Andy!) It’s terribly exciting to think that I may be warping the minds of many people’s family and friends. Please keep spreading the word and expanding our fabulous, snarky gapesnest* community.

Part Four: Quality and Quantity

The items on the New Year's Resolution List for today are quite vague and open to interpretation:
5. Enjoy life more.
8. Learn something new.

Enjoy life more. Seems like a pretty tall order for one year. Maybe it should be quantified more. Would this item be considered successful if you enjoyed life 5% more? What if you took one day out for pure pleasure and life enjoyment—which would be the equivalent of enjoying life .027397 % more? Would that count?

For me, personally, I would need to add some parameters on this before I could confidently cross it off my list on December 31. I think I took a step toward this by quitting a job where I worked over 50 hours a week and was a constant ball of bitter, angry stress. But again, that goes back to quitting—taking something away instead of adding something. What could I add?

Maybe I can vow to sit and have a glass of wine and read a book for an hour every week. No TV or any other distractions. To me, though, this would fall under the more specific category of “read 50 books” or “have more quality alone time.” Likewise, if I defined “enjoy life more” as spending more time with my husband or traveling or learning a new hobby, that’s what I’d write on my resolution list. Really, I think “enjoy life more” is actually the overall theme of a New Year’s resolution list, instead of a specific item. If the point of New Year’s resolutions is not to make your life more fulfilling and enjoyable, then what is it? I’m stumped.

This brings me to my favorite resolution: Learn something new. The possibilities here are endless! Last year, I translated this into “read 50 books.”

This year, I think I’ll keep that goal but refine it a bit. I’ll still try to read 50 books, but there will be an additional stipulation that at least 12 of them must be “classics” of some sort. Listed on a Top 100 Books of All-time countdown, or Top 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century … you get the idea. I also think I’ll limit the number of romance novels that can be on the list to 10. So the majority of my reading is composed of works that I may not have read, otherwise. I am, however, still leaving myself the escape route of children’s fiction as a quick read, in case I’m in the same bind next year as I am right now: I need to read 5 books this week to reach 50. Two down, three to go!

When I think of other new things to learn, sadly, the first ones that come to mind are beyond my control. Like “learn what it feels like to be independently wealthy” or “learn how to engage the audience on your first book tour.” Hopefully “learn what it’s like to own a home, i.e., owe a ridiculously huge amount of money to the bank” is on the agenda. Otherwise, this category needs some work. I’d appreciate any suggestions!

Are you working on your own New Year’s Resolutions? Or do you scorn the practice? I think it’s silly, but I can’t help doing it anyway. It’s kind of a superstition, and also I’m rather goal-oriented. If you have any resolutions or suggestions, feel free to share!

*A side, side note: According to The Word Museum, a “gapesnest” is “a wonderment, a strange sight.” I tried googling “gapesnest” so as to link to this definition, for the benefit of my readers that may not be familiar with old English terms that have been out of use for over a hundred years. What came up, however, was mostly links to this blog. How exciting! Everyone who is curious as to the meaning of “gapesnest” will be directed here! So be sure to bring the term back into common usage, and I’ll do my best to give everyone something to stare at.