Are New Years Resolutions Already Out The Window?
You know, this time last year, as we looked forward to starting a new decade, things looked like they were on the upswing. Little did any of us know what 2020 would come to be. I'm sitting here, working from home because rona showed up at the studios, trying to remember what my resolutions were back then, but I'm drawing a blank.
I do remember thinking I'd join a gym. Not for the traditional New Years reasons of wanting to be more healthy or losing weight, I wanted to grow stronger like I was in my 20's. In 2019, I thought I gave myself a hernia lifting some equipment at work. Luckily, it was just what the doctor called "An extraordinary groin tear." Still, as my number one hobby is building and creating stuff, I didn't want to be limited by my own body. I did join a gym and went with regularity until the covid pretty much forced me to cancel a membership I couldn't use. While I didn't hurt myself lifting stuff this year, I sure did learn a lot about mechanical advantage, levers, and fulcrums. Shop work has been a breeze.
I'm fairly sure I had decided to become a more rounded cook in the kitchen too. I'm the type of person that can eat the same meal for months or years until getting burned out, and then it'll be years until I eat that meal again. Take spaghetti for instance. We probably ate that three nights a week my entire childhood. It's delicious, but even now, I can't force myself to make it because I know I'm still burned out twenty years later. So I wanted to stretch my culinary skills and learn how to make a ton of different easy meals so I wouldn't ever get burned out on something again. That didn't work out either. It's not that I'm not adventurous when it comes to food, I am... but from March to August, food was so scarce, we were all pretty much forced to eat whatever we could all find on store shelves. On a plus side, 2020 was the year I finally accepted soup as an actual food. I don't know why I've spent my entire life thinking it wasn't food.
I did manage to pay off my credit cards by mid-year... but as the pandemic drew on, and a lack of live events to provide additional extra pay, I ended up using those cards again. As we turn over into a new year, I'm again close to paying that card off again, fighting to beat out the introductory zero percent interest before it bounces to a normal 18%.
As we prepare to embark on another years journey, I can't help but think "What's the use in making resolutions this time around?" After all, nothing will change except the calendar. We'll still be socially distancing, wearing masks, arguing conspiracies, vaccines, politics, etc.. What's changing in the foreseeable future? Nothing. I don't think how we're living now will be a permanent thing. Normalcy will reign king again one day, we just can't speculate yet on when that will be. So, what kind of resolutions will you make? My guess is they'll have to be very personal self-help type goals. Things you can actually have control of. Becoming a better person. A healthier person. A better friend or significant other. A better father, son, or brother. Because at this point, making a decision to make resolutions about "things" doesn't seem possible right now.
Whatever your goals end up being, good luck. I'm sure we'll all need a little of it.