This, My 25th Year

Resolutions are important to me, as evidenced by my previous years' posts. This year, I have waited to talk about my resolution until the post coincides with today, my 25th birthday. I want to emphasize how important I think this year is going to be and therefore, why this resolution is so special.

This year, I am going to better myself. These past two years I've tried in small ways: writing every week, reading 50 books, concrete things that can be counted and forgotten. Instead, this year I'm going to be a bit more vague and a bit more interesting. The reason? A quarter of my life is ending, I am transitioning into adulthood (and have been and will be for a few years), and I am wholly unsatisfied.

I have proven that my resolutions can last a year, so now I'm going to focus on quality...lots of qualities in fact. I want to change things! Therefore, each month of this year is going to be dedicated to a different quality (patience, humility, etc). I've talked about Ben Franklin before, and I will mention him again, to explain that I will not be giving up something each month as he did and adding on as I go. Instead, I'm going to dedicate each month to doing something different.

There are a lot of parts to this so bear with me:

External Monthly Structure:

One day per month will be dedicated to planning and executing an awesome event for myself and my friends. This could be, as it is this month, the celebration of a birthday (my birthday karaoke party), or it could be a volunteer day at Habitat, going out to a bar with my girlfriends, etc.

Each season will have a structure as well, in the form of a class. I'm taking some AACC continuing education classes - nothing serious. These include Yoga, Ceramics, Writing, etc. I like structured things and it doesn't get more structured than I paid for it so I'm going to go even if I'm not feeling up to it. Classes are separated by season, so two per season-ish gives me a good extra structure.

Internal Monthly Structure:

Each month has a quality attached to it. For example, one month might be perseverance, where I might write for thirty minutes each day. Another month might be peacefulness, where I do yoga each morning before work. The quality won't be determined until the beginning of the month. I will track each month on this blog.

Each entry will detail the class I am taking, the event or day I am planning, and the quality that is the focus of that month.

For January, I'm going easy on myself and picking hope. This month is dedicated to finding a job and getting comfortable with the daily tasks. In this I hope to find value, but until then it is just a hope. I am trying to sign up for a yoga class and a ceramics class. There are some issues with the passwords, blah, blah. I'll keep you updated on those in a later post. My birthday party in a week is going to be the planned day for this month. We are eating at Honey Pig and getting a private karaoke room at Centennial Que and Karaoke Bar for a couple hours.

Anyway, I'll see you in the next January post. The method and underlying point to this resolution will reveal itself as the year goes on. Explaining it now seems like a giveaway :).

Happy New Year! And Happy Birthday to MEEEEEE!!!