Writing this post is a paltry fulfillment of my resolution back in July to post more posts in August. With this post, I meet that goal, except that I had intended around three times as many posts in August as in July. That would fall under "good intentions," which aren't quite my path to hell, but merit their own post, sometime down the road.
Elul is considered a time for resolutions in the way that the end of December brings out the list-writing-tendency. The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah, is a time of introspection and renewal in a way that "ringing in the New Year" in Times Square doesn't quite capture. Productive reflection over the course of the days (yup, two of them) of Rosh HaShanah is rather difficult with no advance mulling.
Which brings me to my topic of making resolutions.
The frustrating challenge of making resolutions is that we often find ourselves re-making the same resolutions each time we resolve. We don't always (sic) live up to our own plans. So we repeat ourselves. The setting might change a bit, and the end goals shift (perhaps becoming more focused, sometimes less so). But we are ourselves. We progress, of course (we hope!). Nonetheless, while the things that challenge us initially may diminish in force over time, they continue to be our personal bane. If they didn't challenge us, we wouldn't need those darned resolutions anyway. We'd be working on something else, and making resolutions about that!
Those resolutions are often the substance of jokes: starting the diet, stopping smoking, avoiding procrastinating, being nicer to people, working more efficiently, etc. Bridget Jones' Diary presented the making of resolutions with comedic art.
I therefore would like to address a different kind of resolution (there's plenty of Elul left to return to the notion of fixing ourselves, after all). I recently stumbled upon what strikes me as a very fun website called Day Zero: Plan. Create. Motivate. Achieve. The premise of the website is to provoke its members (and anyone else who stumbles across it) to fulfill their dreams, including dreams they might not even realize they have, by making a list of 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days. They explain that 1001 days is several seasons in which to get organized to accomplish things (beyond a single year, for example). They also establish a standard that tasks must be specific and measurable. And in this age of social media, members share their lists, and benefit from the ideas of others. The twelve most popular goals (since I didn't gravitate to all of the top 10) are:
| 1. | Donate blood |
| 2. | Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years |
| 3. | Sleep under the stars |
| 4. | Get a tattoo |
| 5. | Leave an inspirational note inside a book for someone to find |
| 6. | Kiss in the rain |
| 7. | Don't complain about anything for a week |
| 8. | Fall in love |
| 9. | Answer the "50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind" |
| 10. | Watch the sunrise and sunset in the same day |
| 11. | Get a job |
| 12. | Watch 26 movies I've never seen starting with each letter of the Alphabet |
I recommend perusing the list of 101 most popular goals, here.
As for me, my list grows and grows. Some of the things on my list overlap with the other kind of resolution. But many are things I would like to do one day, some day. Not necessarily 101, and not necessarily in 1001 days. The goals are there nonetheless. Perhaps I shall begin by deciding to make better headway this year than last.
I wish there was a 'like' button.
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