So here's my crazy idea! I'm not one for making very serious New Years resolutions, but this year, I have a plan:
I'm going to try, learn, or do something new every day of 2015. And I'm going to share about it here on my blog. Crazy, huh?
Yep, you're all saying I'm going to run out of ideas. I think so too. Actually, I already know I'm going to fail. That's me being realistic. Things happen, plans change, days throw unexpected things my way, and schedules get cram packed. I might get sick and won't feel like doing anything more than absolutely necessary, or just try to survive another day. So why am I even going to try?
I'll tell you why. Because I need to learn to fail. Not just to fail, but to get back up after I fail, again, and again, and again. Also, for me, it's not so much about succeeding every day. It's more about challenging myself, growing, and living with more adventure. I do have a list of ideas to work with, many of which cost money. I need to come up with more ideas that I can do any day at home. My ideas range from food, shopping, sports, spiritual growth, outreach, traveling, books, hair, and other simple things.
When I say I want to try, learn, or do something new every day, I'm not thinking about a bunch of grandiose ideas. It can be very simple. I'm giving myself grace to, on the days I'm stuck, to go to a dictionary and just learn a new word and expand my vocabulary. It can even be about just learning to see things from a different perspective, or doing something in a way I haven't done it before. It's about creativity, challenging myself, and being intentional about learning and growing. And it's also true that I will learn new things simply by going through the everyday of life. People say "You learn something new every day." Well, sometimes it's through mistakes and circumstances we learn new things all the time. It just happens.
As I've pondered about this the last few weeks, I've wondered about different things. What if I do a bunch of new things in one day. Can I use that day to skip out on others, or is that cheating? If it's my idea, I can make the rules, right? What if I'm trying to learn about something big that will take more than a day? So, I haven't figured out all these details yet, but that's okay.
Today I headed over to Wikipedia and learned where this whole New Year's resolutions thing started. It goes back pretty far; it just looked different. Promises were made by ancient Babylonians to gods at the beginning of every year, and the Romans made promises at the start of each year to the god Janus, where the name for January comes from. Knights during the Medieval era would take "peacock vows" at the end of the holiday season each year "to reaffirm their commitment to chivalry." By the end of the Great Depression, approximately one fourth of adults in America were making resolutions. However, a 2007 study showed there's an 88% failure rate among people who plan New Year's resolutions. Hmmm, that's not very good.
I'm planning to share what I'm doing and learning here on my blog. I think it will likely be a weekly post summarizing what I did. If I do something bigger that deserves a post on it's own, I will do that. I will disperse other blog posts and series in between. This web page will definitely be looking different from now on, but I hope you will enjoy what you read. I hope it will inspire and challenge you in your own life, to view things differently, to keep learning, to grow, and to try new things. To live an adventurous life with God.
That is a neat idea!
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