I'm not a big resolution person. When the New Year comes around and everyone debates over diet plans and saving money, I'm usually in the corner eating bonbons and buying shoes. Even worse, I'm also not a fan of the resolution's younger, plainer sister - the goal. Sure, I have goals and strive to achieve them, but the writing them down, keeping track, planning them bit-by-bit part of things? Not happening.To me, goals have always been less bullet points on a list and more the mantras that keep me moving forward. When I question what the heck made me step on that treadmill, I repeat: Mary, you want to age like Sophia Loren, not Marlon Brando. The endless hours of reworking a book's first page are suffered through with a constant refrain of: Mary, if you want to be the next J.K. Rowling, you actually have to write the damn book. This is my relationship with goals. They are the carrot to my panting, tired, let's-just-stop-right-here-please donkey. And yet...
This isn't working as well as I'd hoped. My twenty-fifth birthday rolled around last week, ushering out a whole quarter-century of my life. I'm not one of those girls who thinks life ends at 30. However, despite most assuredly not feeling old, I also don't feel terribly complete. I'm in my mid-twenties. Halfway to 50! When I was younger, I imagined that such an age would mean all manner of wonderful accomplishments: speaking five languages, working for the F.B.I., traveling to Antarctica, knowing how to spell Antarctica so that spell check does not always underline it in red. You know, important grown-up things.Obviously, my goals have changed. (Except for the
So, here they are: my quarter-life resolutions.
- Become a full-time published author.
- Become fluent in French and Spanish, instead of my current conversational hodgepodge approach.
- Master sewing - be able to design, drape, and produce an impeccably tailored wardrobe.
- Train Remy well, so she does not become one of those horrid, ill-behaved dogs everyone hates. (Closely related to number 2, as I would like to take her to France with me, when I'm perfecting the language. They're nicer about dogs in cafes.)
- Become a fantastic golfer. Subsequently, play St. Andrews and Torrey Pines.
- Find an intelligent, interesting, adorable guy whom I love. Live happily ever after.
- Read every book on my 100 Books I Am Ashamed To Have Not Read list.
- Visit all the continents. Including Antarctica.
5 comments:
An excellent list! I have every bit of confidence that you can do these :)
I'm in favor of goal making in the sense of how do you know what you want (so you can make a plan to get it) if you can't speak it. And back-to-school always seems like a better time to launch a new routine, not the dead of winter. Best wishes for your plans!
Thanks, Sabrina! Not going to lie, I almost put "Live in Ireland" on the list, because I've been thinking about your fabulous life plan ever since RWA. There's something about being surrounded by rolling Irish hills that just screams The Perfect Writing Life. ;-)
Ann Marie, I think you're precisely right - if you can't say a goal, own it wholly, how can you hope to put your all into achieving it? And there is something about a new school year that feels more like an opening chapter than January 1st ever does. Excellent points. Thanks for stopping by!
Firstly - Happy belated Birthday!
As a fellow shunner of the New Year's resolution I applaud your approach to making decisions about the direction in which your next steps will take you.
I know I'm a total stranger, but simply from one person to another I would like to extend some goodwill and hope that all your goals reach fruition.
No-one can ever receive too much encouragement.
:)
Post a Comment