Prompt: Try. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did / didn’t go for it?

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We all know Yoda’s saying.  You may be thinking that I messed up the title of this post, but I didn’t.  My friend Ranya and I went through a period of time last fall where we played a lot of Mario Party 8 for the Wii.  We learned, no matter how hard we tried to win by skill, luck ended up being the only thing that mattered in the end.  You could play a bad game and win, or a great game and still lose.  We decided we needed to just relax and enjoy the ride, and coined the saying, “There is no do, only try.” 

The fun was in the trying.

So what do I want to try next year?  There are a few things I want to try that are personality traits.  I want to try to be less stressed over small unimportant things.  I have a hard time when I am not in control of a situation, and I want to try to be more relaxed when things aren’t under my control, especially when it’s fairly unimportant things like somebody making dinner or planning where to meet to friends. 

What else do I want to try?  I want to try new activities!  I want to try to visit the city’s museums, particularly the art museum.  I made a list of places I wanted to try to go last summer and never got to most of them…(nothing bad happened, the list just continued existing).  It’s still a great list!  I will try to carry that list over into the new year. 

Is there something I wanted to try in 2010? 

I wanted to try to get more into the freelance scene here…it’s a slow process but I am getting more calls from a few more people…so I know I will eventually get there (unless we move, then I’ll have to start all over again.). 

I wanted to try to have more students—that happened beyond my wildest dreams (in fact, I may need to try to have less students).  I wanted to try to lose weight and get in better shape—I definitely did that. 

I wanted to try to be more pleasant and less angry—I accomplished that as well.  In fact, I would say that 2010 was a pretty good year in terms of meeting my resolutions.

In summation:

2011 is going to be the year of HAPPINESS–

the year of really trying to enjoy the city I live in by taking advantage of the many opportunities here for recreation and education.

I will also continue on my path to be more relaxed (less stressed) and to maintain CALM, at least on the outside

Prompt: Lesson learned. What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

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The best thing??  It’s so hard to come up with these things every day when I’m busy…I can easily think of good things I learned about myself, but the pressure of “best thing” is really tough! 

Good things:  I have more self-control than I thought.  I actually enjoy muscle soreness and sweating.  I can run.  I have infinite patience with small children in a one on one setting (though not in a group).  I will always be swayed by cuteness, particularly kittens and fat cats.  I love to learn, and have a constant sense of wonder about the world I live in.

So what is the best thing I’ve learned?  I will continue to learn, change, and grow every year, every month, every week, every day.  That’s the answer to both questions in one. 

Or I’m really tired.  Either way, that’s good enough for me tonight!

Prompt: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

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Okay, so I am a bit late on this one.  I procrastinated because I didn’t have a good response.

I have had to make new friends many times in my life, because I have moved several times, and because my friends tend to move as well.  One of these days I will be somewhere more permanently…perhaps I am even there now and just don’t know it.  But until then I will continue to make new friends, and struggle to keep in touch with old friends.  Facebook is a great help for keeping in touch with old friends—both acquaintances and the sort of friend who, if you end up in the same city with them for a few hours, you can pick up exactly where you left off and have a fantastic time with them. 

It’s harder to make friends the older I get.  Sometimes I just don’t want to make the effort to get to know new people and to let them get to know me…other times I meet people who I know would be great friends, but they already have a bunch of friends.  And then many people have children and don’t have time for friends, or have nothing in common with us non-child-bearing folk.

How has a friend changed me or my perspective on the world this year?   One of my new friends loves to try new restaurants—that is always fun.  Other friends encourage me to take classes such as pottery, yoga, or spinning.  I guess if I had to sum it up, my friends tend to encourage me to get out of the house and try new things…Chris and I are creatures of habit, especially if left to our own devices, so it’s good to have friends who push you out of your comfort zone. 

Change is a gradual thing—though showing up to a new class or restaurant is a sudden burst—but personal growth is gradual.  I love having a wide variety of friends with different interests and strengths, and I know they will continue to push me to grow as a person.

Prompt: 5 minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

What to remember?

How to make a proper meal and eat tons of veggies

How to work out and enjoy sweating

The green of Belize

The blue of Honduras

How tired I feel right now, to remember it’s ok to say no to stuff

The feeling of finishing my first race

That I don’t really care for bikram yoga, no matter how “good for me” it’s supposed to be

That I want to do another spin class

All the stuff I’ve learned about teaching…how high of standards I can hold a student to

That children love icing

That a purple reindeer sweater is a great idea

Knee socks are definitely best in the cold

Sticker charts are NOT a good way to motivate most students

Salmon is delicious

My hair looks best long

My next cruise will be on a different line than Carnival

Time’s up!

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Prompt: Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

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There are lots of things I appreciate.  I spent the month of November writing here in my blog about them.

What have I come to appreciate most in the past year?  Honestly, I think I’ve come to appreciate my own humanity most.  In the sense of my life, my mortality, and my connection to other people.  I appreciate the human experience we all have here on this earth.

How do I express gratitude for it?  Must I ?  Can I simply appreciate something?  I live, therefore I am grateful.

Prompt: 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

At first reading this post seems like a great idea.  At second reading, well, I’m just overwhelmed!  11 things?  and for each to answer the question, how will getting rid of it change my life? 

I decided that the 11 things must all be connected to one big thing.  My big thing that I want to get rid of for 2011 is negativity and self-doubt (really the same). 

What things bring about self-doubt?

1.  Worrying about what other people think

2.  Having too high of standards for myself

And that’s really as far as I can get.  So the next thing that brings about self-doubt is trying to come up with 11 things that do!  So maybe I need more “things”?  Am I thinking about this too abstractly?  Should I consider getting rid of 11 actual things?

I COULD get rid of 11 pieces of clothing or shoes…

I have done pretty well this year giving away clothing that doesn’t fit or that I don’t wear, but I am sure I could get rid of more.  I won’t list them here, but let’s assume there is a jacket or two, two skirts, a few shirts, two or three pairs of pants, and likely 2 or 3 pairs of shoes that I haven’t worn since moving to St. Louis OR that are just too big (yay!). 

How will getting rid of these 11 items of clothing change my life?  Well, honestly, the thing that Chris and I fight the most about is probably general household chores.  Neither of us is terribly neat, but due to my self-doubt (see above, particularly reasons 1 and 2) AND due to the fact that I would truly like to live in a neat house, I am constantly bugging him to clean, feeling guilty for not cleaning, or (on occasion and in desperation) cleaning up. 

If I have 11 less items of clothing there is more space in my drawers and closet to put OTHER things away, which might make the rest of the house cleaner.

Outcome: less fighting with Chris. 

And bonus outcome:  less self-doubt over cleanliness of house!

Well, gosh.  This is starting to sound pretty good!  Maybe I need to get rid of 11 things from EACH room….I’ll make a note in my resolution draft