NYR

Eating: nothing

Drinking: coffee

Listening: a conference call

 

I'm back from the North and it's time for New Year's resolutions.  I have always sucked at this (making and keeping), but this blog is about (semi-)public commitment if nothing else.  Here goes, in no particular order.

 

1.  Spend less money.  Less impulse buying, less binge drinking, less aimless frittering.  No strategies here, although I note that ceding control over money to my wife is working so far, and that reading and listening to the stuff that I already have has cut back tremendously on my Amazon spending.  In fact, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the buying impulse and the momentary good feeling rush that happens after I hit buy or when I see the box. 

 

2.  Meditate more (and be a better Buddhist).  Right now, it's ten minutes a night, unless I don't have space (which was my excuse chez mes parents) or in cases of extreme fatigue or drunkenness.  It's hard to see how I could extend that without pissing off my spouse, so maybe the answer is to add one ten-minute session during the day.  I have had some pretty good experiences meditating in the office.  As for "be a better Buddhist", for the present that means one thing: Talk, and think, less shit about other people.  It's a habit that reinforces separateness and leads in the wrong direction.  Listen to Pema Chodron and resist the temptation to criticize even when it's funny or gives rise to a sense of righteousness.  I guess that "continue the lifelong fight against distraction" would fall partly into this category and partly into #6.

 

3.  Exercise more and better.  Lunchtime is the answer, as far as I can tell.  Get co-workers to leave me alone and get to the gym.  I am running out of time before the Nelson trip and I need to make the most out of it.  Exercise better means, for now, more ski-specific and harder.  No more light workouts (although of course they are better than nothing). 

 

4.  Run a marathon.  This is pretty much the only specific resolution.  I want to run a marathon.  The NY marathon.  That means I need to run a lot and get plenty of other exercise.  I have been having mechanical problems with the feet / ankles and I think the solution, unfortunately, is more slow running and less sprinting.  For the time being, anyway. 

 

5.  Reach out.  Write thoughtful emails to good friends and take the time to see people and to listen to what they say.  Respond warmly to the stuff that people send me.  It's so easy to neglect a nice gesture. 

 

6.  Take care.  Focus on a piece of work while I'm doing it, and review it carefully before sending it out.  This applies to work work and to house work.  The impulse to put something down and look at something more interesting and, having done that, the impulse to then speed through the task and thereby do a shitty job both need to be identified and resisted. 

 

7.  Porn.  Obvious, but I feel pretty humiliated having to put this on the internet.  My last true bad habit.  No plans here, maybe just recognize when I am on the verge of giving in to it?