I’m not a resolution type of gal. I set enough standards for myself the other 364 days a year, I hardly need to hold January 1st for some sort of higher standard of demanding achievement.
I can understand the need for renewal and rethinking and refocusing though. Yes, please! So I applaud those of you who are doing just that. But, what I ask of you is to consider this – who are your resolutions for? Are they just for you? What would happen if they were for everyone but you? For every single person on this planet. What would that feel like?
Consider it.
Maybe you have a desire to read more. Why? Because that is what you are supposed to do to be learned and zen and armed with Instagram quotes up the wazoo? What if you read more with the goal to learn and understand others more? To open your heart and mind to possibilities you thought out of reach? To arm yourself with knowledge to improve this place little by little.
Maybe you want to improve your exercising and eating. I ask you to really consider what “better” is in these cases. Is your approach to better at the expense of something else? Is your approach to physical fitness bettering your mind and heart and soul too? Is your approach to eating better also better for all of us who share this earth with you? Would it take the pressure off of what you are expecting from YOU if you knew that every time you put on your shoes or put your fork in your mouth you were acting to improve your health AND that of all of us too?
Maybe this is the year for meditation. Who are you meditating for? Do YOU want to go deeper, be calmer, be smarter so YOU are better? Or could you sit down each morning to open yourself to the possibility of being more for someone else? To being present in this world such that you are motivated to fight for it.
I don’t want us all to strive for sainthood, that would be entirely boring af. But let’s expand a little in 2018. Outside of ourselves. I think you might find if part of your refocusing includes turning the magnifying glass away from YOU, YOU may even become a little more learned, healthy and zen without even trying.