Instead of resolutions, I try to work on a characteristic or a quality, a theme I want to work on each year. Some that stand out are contentment and "quit your bitching", I worked on being more social one year, last year I worked on simplifying ...
My theme for 2010 is "courage." I don't have a great story about how I came about it or why, it just is. It's just a word that kept bouncing around in my brain during the last few weeks of the year and so I just adopted it as my 2010 deal.
It's interesting what happens when I put something like that down on paper (or whatever). I become more aware of my courage (or lack of it) in different situations. I start to see that maybe I'm not as un-courageous (what is the opposite? afraid?) as I thought I was. For instance, those tickets I got from the gal on craigslist? We were trying to set up our "meet" and I just flat out made the arrangements - a few years ago I would have agonized over suggesting where and when, I might have just given up. Monday it just popped out of my mouth.
Another thing happened today. The principal at Bubba's school happened to be in the "hallway" and said he had thought of me for a couple of committees. So, instead of saying, "oh really?" and letting it go, or waiting for him to tell me more, I was a little more forward, asked a LOT more questions, and made plans to talk with him about them on Friday. At 9am. As I walked away, I thought of how that conversation would NOT have happened 6 or 7 years ago (or in high school **).
I've tried to get involved in some other committees but my work schedule didn't allow for it, so he knows I am interested in that kind of thing, and I am actually pretty darn excited that he thought of me - or at least he said he did when he saw me today. What do you think, safety or technology?
Anyway, there are some areas I am already courageous in, or bold I guess might be a better word, and there are some areas where I still need to work on it.
** note about the principal: he's a guy I went to high school with, class president or some such thing, always in leadership roles - even as a student, great athlete, smart, smart, smart. The polar opposite of me. We ran in the same crowd for a time, but never really connected as "friends", probably more me being afraid of him than anything else. **
2 comments:
Good for you! I love how just taking the time to focus on a word or concept brings it to the forefront of our minds in other situations as well. Sounds like you'll have some adventures this year because of your courage.
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