Song in my head: Ben Folds "Landed"
I'm trying something new this year. Instead of doing one overarching grandiloquently impossible resolution, I am giving myself twelve smaller ones, with a new one introduced cumulatively each month. My goal by the end of this exercise will be to come out a better person than I came in: a person with good habits. As a consequence, each progressive month will be more difficult than the last, since everything is cumulative, but the hope is that the month of daily practice will be enough to make the good habit second nature. The monthly resolution can (and should) be small and doable in scope. Without further ado:
January: no more escalators or elevators (within reason).
This was pretty easy, and a good one to start with, since this kept me going into February.
February: reduce sitting time, especially at and to/from work. This took slightly more willpower to accomplish, but doable. This meant standing up when printing at my desk (which I do on a daily basis) and not sit or lean on anything when waiting for the bus.
March: I wanted to start a daily exercise regimen, in anticipation for the summer, but I failed epically by spraining my lower back. I taceted this month.
For some reason, I was convinced that this home workout regimen I saw in an infomercial would work best for me, so I shelled out the dough and gave it a shot. On the first session, I squatted too low for my back to support, and I collapsed into a pathetic pool of failure on the basement cement floor. I can honestly say that was one of my best and worst moments: me writhing in pain on the cold floor for an entire night until my alarm clock rang the next morning. At that point, I gather every trace of willpower from every fiber of my being and excruciatingly got myself to sit up and eventually stand on my feet. My father took me to the urgent care clinic (I refused the hospital), and got a week and a half off from work. Not my the happiest week of my life, let me tell you.
Long story short: lumbosacral sprain taught me to set the bar low each month.
April: no more taking the car to the bus stop. This forced me to plan my mornings so I had ample (or for me, just enough) time to walk my way to the bus stop going to work. Getting up earlier was a bit of a struggle at first, but now I've changed my daily rhythm enough to accommodate.
May: breakfast. Every day. I'd been skipping breakfast regularly, and knew that it needed to change. I didn't need much in the morning, just enough to tide me over until lunch, but I definitely needed something. So I bough a box of Clif bars and ate one every morning. And it worked! I felt less sleepy in the morning, and I gorged less at lunch. I also started taking a daily fish oil supplement.
June: reduce and eliminate overtime at work. This was tricky. I'd be accruing overtime monthly by missing punch times a couple of minutes at a time, enough sometimes to get an extra hour of overtime pay each paycheck. I knew this was a bad habit I needed to break, and fast. So in the last hour of work you can always see me hauling ass and scurrying about, in a mad dash to get as much done before I clock out at 6pm. It worked for a while, but I usually ended up working past punch-out, just to get things done right. So I essentially broke a rule to avoid breaking another. This one is still a work in progress.
July: embarrassingly, brush my teeth daily. Through my efforts, I had neglected to brush my teeth on a daily basis. It was gross. (I did floss on a regular basis, however, lest you think me a boor.) This is totally appropriate because I found out just a couple of days ago that my biannual dental appointment is this Saturday. Hopefully I won't have any cavities this time around.
I'll write another update when August comes around. Geez, time flies when you're too busy working to notice.
