Closing 2016: Resolutions Edition

Happy (almost) New Year, dear friends and family!

I hope you've enjoyed a happy and peaceful holiday season so far!

This year's silly images brought to you exclusively by
  Pusheen the Cat!

Let's dive right into our annual tradition of reviewing last year's resolutions before setting the resolutions for the coming year!

Last year's resolutions were:

1. Write more.

My goal here was largely to preserve my practice of maintaining this blog, and to do so by being a bit more flexible/less perfectionistic about what I write.  

While with this post I will have only managed to write the exact number of posts I did last year (which I would like to improve upon), I also made some albeit minor improvements in my willingness to write some posts I haven't labored over excessively.  I also wrote a post for every single month of the year for the first time since 2011, which means that I've at least maintained a consistent discipline of writing something monthly.

2. Learn Swedish.

I'm really disappointed to say that I have majorly slacked off on this one.  The main barrier has been my fear of possibly annoying Husband with the cute but frequent noises my sweet free language app makes.  I probably need to work on my willingness to risk that outcome, especially since he never complained about it when I was using the app more consistently.

3. Read stuff and learn things.

I feel like I've actually been pretty good about this!  I've swapped out some of my dumber and fluffier podcasts for more intellectually stimulating (and morbidly preoccupied) ones.  I also joined a book club since moving to New City and, for the first time ever, I've actually consistently finished reading the selected books.

I do have an ever-growing collection of articles open in the internet browser on my phone that I may never ever finish reading, but that's a step in the right direction, too.

4. Watch 60 movies.

This was yet another resolution aiming to enforce some better level of balance in my life, by ensuring a reasonable amount of time was dedicated to an interest I love.  While I didn't watch 60 movies this year, I did watch more than the minimum goal of 52.  Like my first 2015 resolution, I did manage to keep up a relatively consistent pace of movie-watching throughout the year, which I think also signals improvement on this front.

Hurray!  Not unambiguous failure on all fronts!

To be fair, I could also have included:

--Move to a New City: success!

--Start a New Job: success!

--Start meaningfully getting finances in order post-graduate training: mild yet measurable success!

--Go on at least one really cool international trip: enthusiastic success!

--Note that not literally only awful things happened this year: I'm ambivalent yet acutely aware of the preciousness of facts, so okay fine!

Now, let's proceed to my resolutions for 2017 and hope they don't all turn out like this!

1. Regularly smash the patriarchy.

The phrase "smash the patriarchy" has begun to roll off my tongue so regularly it runs the risk of becoming cliche, but seriously: in light of the outcome of the recent Presidential election, there is so much work to be done.  I want to be consistently, actively, and measurably engaged in advocating for vulnerable people and causes.  There are a couple of ways I'm planning to do that at this moment, but I don't mean for this to be carved in stone because I still have a lot of learning to do to develop a plan for best using my resources to maximize my impact:

--Participate in regular direct advocacy with my elected officials through a super easy-to-use daily texting service.  It's pretty great so far and seriously takes under 5 minutes!

--Set up recurring donations to advocacy organizations that will protect causes that are important to me, including civil rights and preservation of other democratic values like freedom of speech, assembly, and press.

--Ongoing self-education through self-directed reading and, ideally, participation in courses to learn about dismantling systemic discrimination.

--Advocacy, conversation, and education with colleagues to ensure they feel empowered to stand up for the vulnerable communities we serve as expert, ethical practitioners.

--Practicing my right to peacefully assemble and demonstrate.

--Regularly consume news media again.  Honestly, at this point, this is the hardest part of this resolution.  Despite the fact that I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to fulfill this resolution in the coming four years, I have also found it deeply triggering to listen to the news.  This is such an important practice for any engaged citizen, so I need to start trying to tolerate that again.

2. Learn all the stuff and things.

I want to continue to dedicate time to consuming literature and learning about the greater world, with the aim of supporting my first resolution and just because my brain is hungry.

I'm going to include in this resolution: Learn Swedish.  The sweet, cute, free app is adorable and enjoyable and therefore can easily take the place of some mindless silly game if I'm wanting to be entertained and learn without necessarily learning about sad or highly complex things.

3. Find ways to meaningfully and consistently set limits with work.

Seriously this struggle is killing me.  

I have made a list of things that I want to be happening regularly in my life outside of work.  I want regularly to talk to and see people I love.  I want time to cook meals and simply be home.  I want to do things in New City and travel.  I want to treat these things as equally mandatory as my work obligations.  

I'm doing this with the aim of forcing myself into a greater balance, by basically saying: If these things aren't happening, something is wrong and something at work must give.  Not having measurable life obligations means that work obligations threaten to devour every waking moment.  I just can't do this to myself anymore.

An additional adjustment I'm considering is trying to get to work early rather than staying late.  This would provide time to get extra stuff done that time simply isn't available for on many of my work days, but that time won't be open-ended.  The compromise, obviously, is I have to work through my non-morning-person status to actually get out the door early.

4. Write more.

I genuinely would like to write at least more than 13 posts in the coming year, and would like to continue to write at least one post per month.  With that aim, I'm going to keep trying to push myself to write briefer posts periodically and maybe cap myself at a maximum number of images for shorter posts so I don't fuss over them so much that this commitment is unsustainable.

I've also recently attempted to recommence my long-dormant practice of writing in a journal, and I think (unlike the abysmal and inadvertently self-invalidating attempt of 2013) this one might actually work for me.  I write one page a day with bullet points for the events of the day, following each with how I felt about them.  So, for example:

--Wrote a blog post. (Happy, accomplished.)

So far, it is the opposite of self-invalidation, and lets me take a balanced measure of each day.  I'm hoping I can stick with it, because so far I like doing it.

5. Watch at least 52 movies.

Of course, I aim to watch even more than that, but again: self-kindness.  Let's keep our expectations at least somewhat reasonable.

With that, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and that 2017 is much better than we are perhaps expecting.  Thank you, as always, for reading!

Happy New Year!!

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