Resolutions Update

Michelle Kwan, Figure Skating Legend,
most decorated  U.S. figure skater
(lots of practice...)

A resolution check-in shows that I am keeping all the plans in mind, but not yet putting them all into practice. Nobody is surprised, I'm sure, least of all me. But keeping the plan in mind is the point, because that's what enables the execution of it, eventually, over time.

Moreover, it seems that it takes 66 days for a new practice to become a habit (see here) - and I suppose that's the point of resolutions...to make the practices we want to shape ourselves become habits. Or, in the famous quote attributed to Aristotle that I have been known to make famous on a classroom blackboard (or whiteboard, as the case may be): "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."

The most important new resolution of this year, however, arrived in the second week of January. I would have written about it then, but it needed some digesting, perhaps. The bottom line, however is that I resolved to not cop out on myself. For the first time in a long time, I decided that it's time I refuse to "settle" for that which I don't really respect...for that which I know to be beneath myself. Ironically, a few days after the need for this resolution became clear to me, someone I barely knew recommended that I shoot lower - that my standards just might be too high. I snorted, and said that I keep being hurt by my all-too-often willingness to accept mediocrity when I should have been striving for excellence.

So as a matter of practice and habit and indeed giving credit to myself and those around me - here's to quality, and strengthened resolve to strive for excellence in every arena. Sometimes, the saying makes the decision so.