My #1 New Years resolution of 2019 was to stay on top of writing this year, and we all know I failed miserably at that. I would say I’ll be better in 2020, but odds are I’ll keep up with it for a few months then get so distracted by my stacked brunch schedule and triweekly wine nights that I’ll forget.
In fact, I think I fulfilled so few of my 2019 resolutions that instead of setting new ones for 2020, I’m just going to reflect on how badly I failed at this year’s. After all, acknowledging your shortcomings is the first step to self improvement. Not saying I’m going to change at all this year, but at least I know what I’ve done wrong.
Full disclosure: I haven’t looked at these resolutions since I wrote them down. Feel free to reference the original list to keep me accountable.
I will say, I technically wrote one more blog post this year than I did in 2018. But resolution number 1 was to become a famous lifestyle blogger, and due to my sporadic posting schedule and lack of self-promotion I clearly did not achieve this. I have failed as an advertising & public relations major.
My second resolution was to unsubscribe from all of the emails I receive daily but never read. Instead, I managed to subscribe to MORE newsletters and also to the print editions of The New Yorker and CN Traveler. Now I not only have to clean out my inbox, I have a huge stack of magazines cluttering my kitchen table. Major apologies to my roommates.
I have no idea how many books I read this year or last because I’ve done a horrible job of keeping track. I know I read three over Thanksgiving and two over Christmas, and that my favorites of the year were Where the Crawdads Sing, The Word is Murder, and Circe. I also reread the Harry Potter series because that’s who I am. We’ll leave this resolution as undecided, as “read more books” was not a S.M.A.R.T. goal, and thus I cannot confirm or deny if I met it. Perhaps in 2020 I’ll keep a list of what books read. Maybe.
As for resolution four, I did actually watch all of Game of Thrones in about two months, just in time for the final season to air. Should I have told my boss I watched half of it at work (on ¼ of my screen while I was actually working)? Probably not.
The more I look at these resolutions, the more it seems I actually accomplished. I’ve finally perfected my schedule to make sure I’m 15 minutes late to everything I do, I brought lunch to work for three straight months, I attended far more brunches than in 2018 (crazy how that happens when you make more friends!!), and I didn’t eat at Dig Inn ONCE.
Sure, it helps that those “resolutions” were things I would’ve done regardless of if I put them on a list or not, but doesn’t it feel nice to pretend you’ve achieved something you once considered a goal? I thought so.
My last, and most important, goal for the year was to “do more stuff.” Yes, I know, another extremely specific and measurable goal. And if walking 100+ blocks home from work on multiple occasions counts as “stuff,” then I’ll call this one a success.
Kidding (kind of). I also jumped in the Washington Square Park fountain, went on a pizza tour, attended the Tony Awards (despite not being nominated — can you believe?!), got my phone stolen, fell down multiple flights of stairs, was a groomswoman, visited at least four museums, saw the Jonas Brothers in concert, became a regular at a wine bar (which is honestly dangerous), met Niall Horan at JuicePress, and dyed my hair three times. I’m sure I’ve forgotten at least 294 other things that fall into the category of doing stuff, but these highlights will have to suffice.
When I started writing this, I intended to make the points that there’s no reason to wait until January 1 to set goals for your life, and you shouldn’t feel pressured to make some drastic lifestyle changes just because a new year is starting. If you want something in your life to change, just go for it!
But then I remembered nobody should trust me as a life coach, so I decided not to make that point.
Moral of the story: I may not have reached all of my goals for this year, but I had fun along the way, and that is good enough for me.
Here’s to more wine and less phone theft in 2020!