January 2: that time of year when most of the world is busy trying to keep their newly made resolutions. Given the rise in obesity and sedentary lifestyles in the past decades, I've little doubt "lose weight" and "get healthy" continue to be top resolutions for millions of people around the globe this year. I must admit that those two topped my list many of the past 30 years. But not in 2008.
It's not because I have finally hit my "ideal" weight, learned to limit consumption of my husband's many culinary confections or now exercise 7 times a week with religious fervor. It's because I've finally realized that being happy trumps any other particular goal I might strive for or achieve - including getting back into my pre-pregnancy size 6/8 suits - and that my key to happiness may actually be counter intuitive to how I've lived most of my life thus far. I think that being happy for me means less striving and perhaps even less achieving. Yes, in 2008, I am resolved to "do" less and "be" more. I want to learn to live more in the moment. To be present when my 3 year old daughter asks me to play ice cream shop. To be attentive when my husband wants to share his excitement about a sailing event. To even be joyous on my inevitable daily trek to Starbucks, which can indeed be quite pleasant when there's newly fallen snow crunching under my boots. I want to enjoy the moments I have more and multi-task less - at least outside of work.
I'm only two days into this resolution so I'm still learning how it will actually play out. What I do know is that even when time is limited, I want to be fully present and truly experience (and hopefully enjoy) the moments in my life. Not be constantly thinking about all the other things I could or should be doing. I think George Carlin actually said it quite well: "These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill...We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years."
As a self-confessed life-long striver and doer, I can relate to this. Perhaps you can too. But at 43, I feel I've proved sufficiently that I'm great at achieving. In 2008, I want to prove I can be just as good at "living" as I am at "doing". Perhaps that still sounds like striving to you but it feels really different to me. We'll see how it goes...