A New Dawn, A New Day

Every year, I write out an extensive list of New Year's Resolutions. Sometimes, I even write them for new school years or the Jewish new year. Usually this laundry list has a theme, like "unity" or "balance" or "strength". And every year, I print out this list and tell myself I will look at it frequently and monitor my progress. And every year, I do that sometimes... but most of the time, I just keep on keeping on.

Lately I've been thinking. There are a lot of things in my life that I'm unsatisfied with, and a lot of things in my life that are better than they've ever been. If I were to type out a list of measurable action items a la marketing plan, it would be about 15 pages long. And I can really only see as far as May. After that, who can say? My roles change every year. Who can anticipate where an entire year will go?

Maybe that's why we're meant to make A new year's resolution, not SEVERAL new year's resolutions. Maybe for some people making one resolution is easy; maybe some people don't change roles as often as a graduate student or entry level worker or newlywed. But as far down the line as I can see, I'm going to be in this crazy dynamic lifestyle where I'm juggling the student hat, the teacher hat, the girlfriend hat, the daughter hat, the sister hat and the friend hat, all while trying not to lose sight of the ME hat. How do you sum up all of the directions you want all of those people to go in one sentence?

In 2011, I will be the best me I can be.

In every role, in every way, I will do my damnedest. I will learn my limits for each individual task and when I am approaching them. I will balance all of them with poise and grace. I will never forget that among all of these, I need to find time for being a better ME for the sake of ME and doing the things that I love selfishly - yoga on Fridays, baking cupcakes, and looking in the mirror and actually liking what I see.