Close your year write.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 3 comments link this postNew Year's Resolutions never appealed to me. They seemed arrogant, as if, by trying to water-witch the upcoming year, I could determine, on the first day, the changes I needed to make in my life for the 364 days that were about to happen. How should I know what the new year will require of me, and what changes I need to make now to be ready for that?
I suppose the general idea is to look at the previous year and see what changes you need to make. The New Year's marker is really just random. Personally, I find more success and less pressure on making life changes if I do them throughout the year, not associating them with any holiday, special moment, or life marker. Just randomly, maybe on a Sunday in May, think "today, I need to start stretching and exercising a bit more."
Starting a new year with a list of massive life changes is a horrible way to go. Change is hard. One thing at a time, spaced throughout the year so that the change becomes normal before adding another change, is much more realistic and doesn't leave me, at least, feeling like a failure when some changes don't take right away. Since there was no major moment when I deemed it necessary to establish this change, I don't catch myself thinking "oh well, I'll try again next year" but instead, I think "well, I guess I'll give it a try tomorrow."
I do think, however, that reflecting on the year that has just passed is of utmost importance. Perhaps our focus on the new year is just another example of people wanting to toss away the old (and possibly painful or disappointing) and rest in the hope of something new. That old year, though, has a way of affecting the new, and I had better learn from it.
So, for those of you who can relate to my way of thinking about the new and old year, and for those of you interested in writing, I have a couple of ideas for you.
I recently read in a book about a writing assignment that an adult education teacher gave her class. Essentially, she had them write about themselves, but the essence of the assignment was: I am. I found that particularly intriguing. It wasn't a listing of events, family, abilities, or what I wasn't. Instead, a simple statement of being, a bold question: I am.
Who am I?
From my burgeoning collection of blank journals, I selected one and have inked inside the cover: I am. I may not fill up the journal this year. Perhaps I'll do this again at the close of 2008. Perhaps I'll keep this journal as a yearly collection of who I believed I was, starting at age 33.
If such an assignment is not to your liking, I am also intrigued by the Six-Word Memoir Contest, and how I could take that idea -- brief, succinct, summation -- and look at my life or the past year. A friend had emailed me the link to the Memoir Contest, and my first thought was one of relief at the sever reduction in word count. Too often memoirs become bloated and filled with writing about the lives around us in an effort to not address the idea of "I am." Six words doesn't allow for a lot of writerly dilly-dallying.
"I hope I can be clever," I emailed my friend back, both in response and as a possible memoir of mine.
So, for the ending of 2007, for those so inclined towards writing, two possible ways to end your year "write."
"I Am"
- I handled this assignment by breaking up my writing so that each paragraph started with an "I am" statement, followed by concise sentences that fleshed it out. For example, I have for one of the statements: "I am happier with fewer voices in my life." It sounds like I'm not writing about myself, but in the rest of the paragraph, I try to determine why this is, and what it is about me that makes it true. Another statement I've written is "I am unable to walk away." (Which could also fit for the six-word memoir project below.)
- I'd encourage you to keep a specific journal for this project, and do it again at the close of the years ahead. I have a feeling I'm going to learn an awful lot about myself as I read who I thought I was each year.
- You could also write this as a more typical memoir, as long as it remains about truly discovering the answer to the statement of "I am" instead of writing about those around you. They aren't you; don't let them define or determine who you are. Write about the "I am."
Six-Word Memoir
- Either write one, or a short series, of six-word summations. Check out this website for ideas on how other people handled it.
- Think of other ways to apply the six-word limitation in thinking about your year. For example, six words to describe your professional life. Six words to talk about your relationships. Six words for your family. See what starts to transpire, and jot them all down. Do you see a pattern? Are you leaning towards humor, negativity, or writing it straight?
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 12/21/2007 12:01:00 AM
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3 Comments:
"Too many sermons!" the preacher proclaimed.
My daughter...light of my life.
Trying hard (sometimes) to follow Jesus.
and
Words alone are never enough.
By 
Will, at
December 21, 2007 11:45 AM
But what's wrong with making resolutions? The end result is the same, isn't? Wanting to make changes in your life?
By 
, at
December 22, 2007 9:27 PM
Change is good. Wanting to make changes for the better is a good thing.
My problem with resolutions is that merely listing "lose weight" as a resolution might seem to be the obvious solution to an obvious problem. However, what if over-eating and food are symptoms of another problem? The "I am" listing is more about digging deep to find these things about ourselves that manifest in other ways.
So, instead of just trying to lose weight for the sake of losing weight because I'm chunky, I might discover that I'm using food excessively because I'm lonely, because I'm afraid, because I want people to not see me and instead see a fat person...things like that. So saying "lose weight" might not be strong enough incentive since the root causes are still there, unidentified, while the symptom is mistaken as the real problem.
