On Resolutions

I love making New Years resolutions. I love making lists and it makes me feel organized, competent, complacent, superior and many other disgusting things. Of course the feeling only lasts about 5 minutes which is how long I generally keep the resolutions. Last year instead of making any resolutions I went with an idea I read about on a blog about choosing a word for the year. The word I chose last year was simplify and while I didn't blog about it (or admittedly think about it all the time) I did manage both willingly and unwillingly to simplify my life in quite a few areas. I've been thinking about choosing a word for 2010 and reading some blog posts about different words people have chosen. I even had a fairly long list of words written down but nothing felt right to me.

I've made a lot of changes in my life during 2009, especially in the last two months. I've been thinking a lot about other ways I'd like to change although I think change may not be the word I want. I think grow is a better word. Most everything I think about is something I've known that I wanted to do for a long time. It's often fear that has stopped me, sometimes laziness and sometimes just a stubborn determination to see how stupidly harmful to myself I can be.

So. . . as I was thinking all these fascinating thoughts it made me think about one of my favorite quotes. Instead of resolutions or a word for 2010 I've decided that I'm going to work on doing the things I want/need to do and NOT doing the things that I know are harmful. It sounds kind of easy on the surface but given my past history I guarantee you it isn't! So here you have it, my quote for 2010:

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.
~Book of Common Prayer

I looked up ought (lest you wonder, I did know what it meant - I like to look up words to be exact) and the definition I found was "used to express obligation." This fits very well I think - the things I want are obligations I have to myself if I want to be the best person I can.

Note: This starts January 1. That means I have 2 days to do those things which I ought not to do (of which I have a list also!).