Resolution

Ok, so maybe it's a little late for a post like this. Whatever.

It may be the 21st of January, but I should probably think about this a little more now that my original plan hasn't worked out. I initially planned on doing what I deemed the "Ben Franklin test." Basically, in a chapter of his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin talks about a process he goes through to better himself. He concentrates on 13 virtues for 13 weeks, one virtue per week, and marks down every time he slips up in each week on a chart he keeps with him.

I kind of lost track by the second virtue (which was Silence. HA!) I never did make myself a chart either, so I suppose I wasn't taking it too seriously to begin with. I still plan on doing it some time, I just have to do a better job organizing it.

If you want more information about the test, feel free to leave me a contact and ask. I'll post the "directions" - direct quotes from Franklin's autobiography explaining it all. He's a really awesome guy.


So, back to me failing at it. Yeah, ok. So I'm trying to figure out what I want to do to better myself this year. (What is our obsession as American's with this?) I'm going to start with a couple goals:

1. Move past the point of "Awareness" into "Active Involvement"
As Christian Lander not so kindly points out in his book Stuff White People Like we as a culture like to talk about things like we know what we're talking about without doing anything about it. We can say "Save Darfur!" all we want, but we don't do shit to make it happen. It's all about passing the torch- "I told you about it, now you fix it. My part is done." Nope. Not for me. I'm going to work on not just telling people, but setting an example as a participant in being part of the solution.

2. Explore things I was too bitter to explore last year
Among these are three movies (P.S. I Love You, Once and Into the Wild) I couldn't bring myself to see in 2008 for stupid, raw nerve reasons. The first being that I couldn't stand gooey love stories, the second being that it reminded me too much of someone I lost and the third because I would argue the living hell out of Christopher McCandless' logic. Sorry, Emile Hirsch. I'm going to try to view your acting without bias here. To extend this goal, I guess what I'm trying to do is continue to desensitize myself from stuff that used to bother me. There's lots of stuff that goes in that pile.

3. Stop being such a little liar.
Being honest seems to be the best policy. No more dumb excuses/little white lies for not doing things I don't want to do. It's exhausting and really, really stupid.

4. Just like everyone else: Health
Participating in my first swim meet in 3 years last week really opened my eyes up to how little I exercised before this month. The giant hill at school isn't enough. I need to make time for this.

5. Being More Assertive
Because I am a doormat, end of story. When a Catholic priest tells you you need to stop being a doormat, then you really need to stop.

So there we have it. Some new goals for 2009. And now I've written them down so I won't forget them. :)

Peace!

- Lauren