Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
New Year resolutions
It's getting towards that time of year again... Have you decided on your New Year's resolutions? Do you prefer not to make any? Post about it here!
Who else has a tendency to make too many/too strict resolutions and then get daunted? (I'm suspecting practically everyone on here...)
I've already got a few big life changes coming up that are nothing to do with NY resolutions, just happen to be taking place around now:
Start cycling to work (My travelcard ran out!)
Start carbon reducing for the 10:10 project
Start looking for extra work (again).
I've also got a few things I've decided to do recently without even thinking about the New Year factor, so these could be resolutions or not:
Start using PA properly
Work through my new self-help book on 'Adversity Quotient' (I'll be posting more on that in 'Special Projects')
Give up caffeine (I've had a head start here thanks to several days in my parents' caffeine-free house!)
After thinking of ENDLESS resolutions I could add on top of that, I've whittled it down to just two that are really important to me, and without which I feel there's something missing from my day:
Pray and read the Bible every day, however little
Do some creative writing every day, however little
Too much? Advice welcome!
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New Years Resolutions
Wow-is it already March?
1. Lose 20 pounds and keep it off.
2. Find a way to tolerate reports or get diff. contract
3. become a better record keeper-keeping track of family and work information and organizing important papers
4. make point to do more fun stuff w/family
My new year's resolutions are
develop support system
Agnus' values and priorities tune-up
I'd rather not make any traditional guilt-producing resolutions for this year. But it is a good time for revisiting and re-tuning my values and priorities.
Jkl/Check in
Happy New Year.
Next Hour
hair
kitchen
breakfast
bedroom
bonus...Read
Further reflection: I
Further reflection:
I think the only things that are actually NY resolutions in my list are:
Pray and read the Bible every day, however little
Do some creative writing every day, however little
All the others are things I'm already doing or committed to doing anyway. I feel like those boats have already sailed and it would almost be cheating to call them New Year's resolutions (and also make me feel daunted and overcommitted, even though I'm already happily doing most of them... I know, makes no sense!)
On top of the two that actually ARE New Year's resolutions, I'm feeling incredibly tempted to make some kind of commitment to neatness, but again worrying that that might be too much. (I'm a mess-maker as well as a procrastinator :) and as I'm also a hardcore Mary Poppins fan, that bothers me...)
new year
When I was a child, I was totally psyched about New Year resolutions. To me, it was a clean slate, a chance for a new start from my life of shame and blame. I always heard, from parents, teachers, "Too bad she's not living up to her potential."
Well, forty years later, I'm still not living up to my potential, and struggling not to feel cynical and negative about new year's resolutions, since they always seem to be broken by January 7.
To me, this would be the "potential" of my working with this group - that every day would be a new day. Like all 12 step programs: One day at a time. So I'm not making new year's resolutions - that's too overwhelming for me, sets me up for failure. I'm not criticizing nor judging anyone here who feels hopeful about the new year. For me, it has to be only:
For today, I will set achievable goals, and I will achieve them. For today, I will check in and check out. For today, I will not bemoan my unmet potential.
mj
I think you've made a
I think you've made a really good point and I'll second that - nobody on here should feel at all pressured to make resolutions. I may be making them this year, but there've been a lot of years when I haven't made them for exactly the reasons you describe.
Your 'one day at a time' approach is very wise and I'm glad there's someone on here putting that side of the coin in such a positive (yes positive) way <3
A new plan for new years resolutions
Every year, I make a boatload of new years resolutions. Every year, I have myself convinced that there are all sorts of major things wrong with my life that I must change right away. And every year I fail to make any meaningful changes with the new year.
So, this year I'm going to try a new approach to resolutions. First, I'm going to remember that (thanks to this site, hard work, and a lot of luck), I'm actually doing pretty well. I've made lots of positive changes in my life. I'd like to change more, but it doesn't have to be right away.
Then, every month I'm going to pick one habit that I want to change. And I'm going to change it just for a month. After that, if I don't like the new habit, I can drop it.
(Steve Pavlina has an interesting article on the "30-day trial" that motivated this approach, http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/)
I'm going to spend some time today listing all the habits I'd like to change, and then choose JUST ONE to focus on for January. Back with that.
Update 11:20: My habit for January is: live on a smaller fraction of my income. For January, I'm going to make this a challenge and see how close I can come to living on half of my pre-tax income. I don't think that this is something I want to do permanently, but I think if I do a strict version for a month I'll make money-saving habits that I can use for the whole year.
Brilliant!! Good luck!
Brilliant!! Good luck!
Rexroth plans
More plans than resolutions and mainly to build on what I've achieved this year.
Get fit and well again as I was just over a year ago before I found a lump in my body
Finish off legal/business problem as far as I can most of which I have done this year
Travel abroad which I have been putting off for the last two years
Attend CBT/mindfullness course and continue with CBT techniques which I learned earlier this year so I am not depressed again
Continue going to church praying and meditation regularly
Get on with my craft projects
Get out more socially
Make more of a contribution to the world
Possibly finish a book I was writing - this is the only matter I'm not sure about but definitely do some writing
Thats it and thanks for starting the thread Lucky
Regards Rexroth
Journey resolutions
I'm always making resolutions so I don't really do any special ones for New Year's lol.
That being said, here are the resolutions I make every Jan.1:
But, on a more serious note I want the focus of this year to be: discipline. I want to feel that I am in charge of my time instead of feeling out of control. I will remind myself that I am in control of my time.
Jo
How you spend your days is how you live your life - Edge
And thanks, Lucky!
Really appreciate you starting this post. Your description of your healthy goals got me inspired to write mine down. That's awesome.
Gnothi Seauton ~ Know Thyself
Aw, you're welcome - and
Aw, you're welcome - and wow, yours are fantastic! Very happy to have inspired something like that!
New Year's Revelations
I suppose I am making some plans based on hope for finding better health and wealth in the months ahead.
I have to stay really light and subtle about it though. No "resolutions" here.
Fewer weekend days in my apartment alone. But if I do end up there, don't dwell on whether it was "good" or "bad." Think of the quiet as you pulling back your bow. In the silence before action, you are composing your energy.
Volunteer. This afternoon, while in clear mind, seeing that I needed to evoke healthy "work," I signed up to volunteer at two places. I used to think giving to others was somehow selfish, self-aggrandizing, egotistic and I had conflicts in my mind about whether it was actually bad to give! I think, (actually I know), that this conflict existed because fundamentally I didn't believe I deserved to do things that would make me feel "good" or "better than." I honestly, truly, was ashamed of myself.
Today I am internalizing what my therapist has been saying to me for a year: "It is healthy to be selfish in that way. It is honorable. And you're right, it is selfish. Revel in it. Keep doing things for yourself like that."
Let the thoughts pass. When you have bad thoughts about yourself, ask yourself if you would feel that way if that thought was utterly false. What if you were wrong? Allow those thoughts to pass away.
Those are my new year's revelations.
--Make plans for the weekends.
--Volunteer.
--Let the bad thoughts pass.
I hope that's not too much.
Gnothi Seauton ~ Know Thyself