When people ask me what this blog is about, I generally hem and haw and eventually say something along the lines of “um, self-improvement?” It is, as I wrote last year, a bit of an ongoing resolution machine, a place to share how I am challenging myself, and where I am growing.
This will be the end of the first full calendar year since relaunching the blog. Once again, in the spirit of accountability and follow-through, let’s take a look back at my everyday resolutions:
“I want to spend my 15 minutes a day getting my heart pumping [jump roping] and chipping away at that gnawing feeling that I’m not using my body nearly as effectively as I use my head.” - 15 Minutes
And while I’m still embarrassed [about liking country music], I’m trying to own it. - “I guess that’s just the cowboy in us all.”
I am going to try to work out regularly with a friend who has a gym in her building. - The One-Month Crunch
I know there is music inside these strings, but I haven’t found it yet. Still, I am learning, slowly. – One More Time, with Feeling
But to give passion to a lot of things? I think it’s better to pick a few at a time. And once you’ve got them—I’ve got mine—move your feet. – Passion, Action, and Being Seen
I cannot wait to see myself reflected in someone else’s eyes. I have to do, create, act. Be. The day I stop relying on how others see me is the day I begin relying on myself. – Crowdsourcing My Self
I recently gave myself a curfew. I try to unplug by 11pm, and be in bed by midnight. – I Dream of Sleeping
It’s a little overwhelming to think that one conversation with a friend and one two-minute video will probably change how I shop for, well, everything going forward. - Slave Labor for Dummies
Okay, let’s see. I didn’t once go to the gym with my friend. I did jump rope for a while, but after the weight came off I pretty much stopped (and I have to replace the batteries in my scale, so I don’t really know where I’m at right now). I took two ukulele lessons and then quit because I felt too overwhelmed to really take the time to practice. I do try to own liking country music—and, actually, writing that post was a big first step. I was very involved in helping to make the space and larger community where I work more LGBTQ inclusive; I’m very proud of that. The curfew was successful for a little while, and I definitely have been valuing my sleep more in general, but I need to get back to being strict about unplugging at 11pm (she says as she writes this at 1:06am). I purposefully have been thrifting more instead of buying new, in part thanks to some of the conversations I’ve been having about slave labor.
Not great, perhaps, in terms of follow-through. Not bad, though, either.
And—most importantly and all the while—I really have been working on being the person I want to be, and not simply waiting to be seen a certain way. I can’t say that this has always been easy or that I’ve always been successful; certainly I still care too much sometimes about what others think. But I am ready to be, to act, to do, to create, to write. And I am… bit by bit. As my blog promised, I am becoming the person I might have been.
Looking forward to all of the beautiful, dynamic, inspiring people we will be in 2012.
