Saturday, December 31, 2005

Playing to Your Weakness

It's New Year's Eve. Maybe I should wait till tomorrow to think about resolutions, but I'm not doing much else at the moment.

Are there more futile traditions than the New Year's Resolution? How many have you kept in your life? In previous years, I tried. I would make a deeply meaningful resolution, often keeping it to myself, but really being earnest about it. Never meant squat. Think about it, you pledge to wipe out this deeply rooted part of yourself, to grind smooth some groove you've been wearing into yourself for your whole life. Starting this arbitrary day. Talk about built to fail.

I closely observed an exception in 2005. My wife resolved to get more organized, and she did. She didn't become a paragon of order, but she made real progress, dragging me part of the way with her. Credit given where it is due.

I've given up on this approach for myself. I had given up last year, and so I made a trivial, fun resolution. Cause you think you could do that. I resolved to remember jokes. I don't remember jokes. I hear a joke, I laugh or don't, and its gone. I succeeded for maybe 3 months. I had like tripled my cache of jokes. By this December 31st, I've forgotten them all. I didn't resolve to save the world or fix my greatest flaw, just get better at something I suck at. Again, planned to fail.

So I'm working on a new strategy for this year. I have a recent success as a model. I decided it wouldn't hurt me to dress a little more nicely on occasion. I can decide that, but the groove, the habit, the vision of I have of who I am, it doesn't' give up easy. So I played dirty.

I have this pattern. I buy two pairs of jeans. I wear one of them almost every day until one or both wear out. I buy two pairs of jeans. Repeat. A few months ago it was time to buy two pairs of jeans again. I bought one pair of jeans, and one pair of kakis. One moment of strength set me up for months of virtue. I hate to shop. I'm always behind on laundry. I won't go buy another pair of pants till one wears out, and I won't do laundry often enough to keep clean alternatives to the kakis. I'm stuck. I wear them once or twice a week. I played to weakness, instead of relying on strength.

You see where I'm going. I'm trying to devise New Year's Resolutions based on this strategy. If suitable, I'll share them with you, once I've dreamed them up.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune had a great article in December 2004 talking about New Year's Resolutions and how futile they were. Unforutnately, the text of the article is in the "pay only" archived part of the Tribune's website (Why wait? Now is a great time for resolutions, Dec. 5, 2004). It begins: Years are useful because they impose deadlines, which is precisely why the New Year's resolution isn't as useful as it's cracked up to be. There's not enough pressure in a New Year's resolution. You can make it in January. Or February. You can dawdle until March, and then resolve in April to make your resolutions next year.

It goes on to say that you should really look at the end of the year as a time to finish up things you started and never completed, or things you never got to at all - like making that dentist or doctor appt. If you look at the 31st as a deadline to get things done, you affect your life more than making a New Year's Resolution. I liked it.

Hypatia said...

I thought I was the only one who bought two pairs of jeans at a time.

I wouldn't compare yourself to Jen for resolutions though -- she can be amazingly focused when she wants to do something. I have a dozen staggering childhood stories, and I'm sure you've accumulated a few. ;)

But, perhaps you can take something from her example. Jen has fantastic willpower, but I think the seed is the desire to achieve a goal. It seems to be a matter of harnessing the desire, making the resolution important, incorporating whatever it is into your daily culture / routine / lifestyle. I notice I don't seem to stick to the vague, "It would be cool if I did blah," goals.

Josh Gentry said...

Beth, I like the 31st as deadline thing. Good thought.

Hypatia, she can get her mind set on something, its true. The whole progress in getting organzined has in fact been about developing habits.

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