We are two weeks into 2012 and, according to the Mayans, I don’t have a lot of time left to improve myself before I die. Since the turn of the New Year, I’ve been debating my resolutions for 2012. What do I need to work on most? What are the things that, given my full attention, I am capable of changing? After a week of debating and another week of laziness I’ve decided on a few goals for this year (or at least the part of the year that we have left before the Mayans rise up and take revenge…that is what happens, right? Mayan Zombie Apocalypse?).
I've invited a few friends to tell you about a few of my New Years resolutions. Please welcome Y U No Guy, Skyrim Stan, Philosiraptor, and Success Baby! Enjoy!
My dad’s last bit of advice to me before I flew back to Provo for New Year’s Eve was to “get involved.” Get involved in church, in school, in dating, in work, in life. I must admit that my immediate thoughts were “that’s nice; I’ll keep that in mind.” Little did I know that those words would soon frame my entire approach to 2012.
I’ve always believed in achieving balance in life. However, just because you believe in something doesn’t mean that you practice it perfectly. I’m trying to achieve a healthy balance between all the aspects of my life, but I often find myself focused primarily on school by default. If I manage to find myself in a relationship, my primary focus shifts in that direction. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m the ward recluse. I won’t deny it. I’ve already begun to change it (this may sound silly to you, but I’m proud of myself for it). My belief in the Gospel is strong; my interaction with the ward is weak. Also, with the recent turn of events in my dating life, I find myself needing to get involved in dating again (something I haven't really felt the motivation to do, but I know it must be done and when I am ready, it will be). Again and again, the reasons for my father’s advice are making themselves apparent to me.
I resolve to get achieve balance in life by becoming more involved in the aspects of life that I have left by the wayside and by achieving equilibrium between these aspects.
This may or may not be a resolution of mine. Allow me to explain. Since a certain "arrow to the knee" in my dating life a few years ago, I've been a much more closed-off individual. It hasn't been easy for me to open up my heart to new people, so the number of people that I trust (and I don't use the word trust lightly) is a small group that I hold dear to me. Allowing someone into this group takes time and great care. Someone leaving this group is devastating in the truest sense of the word.
This is something I've been giving a lot of thought to, recently. Is the above really something that needs to change? Had I been practicing this approach before, maybe I would have avoided that arrow to the knee entirely; however, I would have also missed out on the learning and growth that came as a result. So the question is "What am I experiencing and what am I missing?" I don't know if this is a question that can ever be answered.
I guess the best way to put it is that I resolve to give fair chance to those who wish to have my trust and my loyalty and to not shut someone out unwarranted.
Going back to balance, it’s no secret that I spend way too much time inside. This one is simple: I need to get out more! Live life! Enjoy it! A very wise and insightful person (who I happen to know!) once said “Life is also to be enjoyed in pieces. Bits and bites and beautiful moments.” This hit me like a slap to the face. Not the kind of slap that you get when you say something you shouldn’t have and your dear friend at work slaps you in the face (but you both know everything’s good because you both know each other well enough), but the kind of slap that comes when God is saying “Hey, you, pay attention to that. See that? Sound familiar? No? That’s because you’re not doing it. Now do it.” Robert Brault said “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
I resolve to not only enjoy life, but to experience life as well – to live and to breathe and to truly appreciate all that it has to offer, big and small, for every moment is a chance to do something worth remembering.
Let’s be honest with each other. Do we always follow through with your New Year’s resolutions? No. No, we don’t. If you said “Why yes, Brandon, I do” then you are suffering from what Han Solo would call “delusions of grandeur.” The real truth is that we aren’t meant to succeed by resolution alone. The hope is that in consciously practicing our resolutions they will one day become unconscious habits. You will feel something missing from your day until you’ve read your scriptures. You won’t have to fight your conscience over whether or not to eat that donut. Stubbing your toe will bring to mind other words than the ones you start saying only to turn them into words like “damage” or “Shitaki mushrooms”.
The goal here is to have the resolve to enforce my resolutions until they’ve become habitual – to engrain within my very being the things that I wish to improve upon so that time and neglect will not unravel them.
There you have it - the core of my New Year's resolutions. Sure, there are more. But this post is long enough as it is. I really do hope that you have taken the time to find a few things that you want to work on as well. After all, life is better lived with conviction and with purpose.
It's 3:52AM. I'm going to bed.
P.S. I've enabled anonymous commenting. Enjoy.
P.S. I've enabled anonymous commenting. Enjoy.
2 comments:
If you're open to the small moments, you might just discover a great love within them! A brief connection, a sweet moment shared between souls, can become so much more if we only take advantage of it.
Whoever you are, thank you for making me smile. You may not even know how much I desire to have in my life exactly what you described.
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