"What are our next steps?" he asked.
"There are no next steps," she answered. "Just now steps."
Oh, new year, here you come. Full of promise and resolutions and all sorts of lists. Almost guaranteed is that in the next week we will see a pouring out of articles and blogs that outline the age-old activity of creating New Year's Resolutions. Oh, you hate resolutions? Don't worry, there be a ton of people posting about that, too.
I have no strong opinion on resolutions. Make them, don't make them, whatever. I have had years when I made a bunch, or where I've tried to put a creative twist on this common practice. I have always felt good about doing this, and honestly, I never have any regrets if I don't follow through on everything I thought I wanted to achieve at the beginning of the year.
366 days (whatup, leap year!) is a long time to want the same thing and also a long time to accomplish something.
I decided recently it was about time to dig into what I wanted to dedicate more time and energy to. Not really goals, not truly resolutions, but more a few things I wanted to be deeply dedicated to tending to over the next year. Here's what I came up with:
Cooking
I don't really cook, and if you know me you can atest to the fact that I am a grazer. I am not home a lot in the evenings and I live alone so buying and cooking tons of food doesn't really make much sense during this season of my life. But I recently started dedicating Sunday nights to cooking- something, anything- as long as I use a pot or pan and turn on my oven or stove- it counts.
I am dedicated to cooking, for myself, one day a week. A time to feed my body and my soul. A time for nurturing. A time to slow down and be present with myself.
Exercise
I know, I know (yawn), everyone wants to start exercising (next year). And a ton of people do (have you ever been to a gym is January? I bet you have- that's when everyone goes to the gym!), which is awesome and great and a desperately needed goal for a lot of people. What I want, though, is slightly more specific because it requires a bit of a lifestyle change around reworking my mornings to add exercise and more thoughtfulness to my pace and routines.
I am dedicated to rising earlier and starting my day with physical activity. A time to strengthen my body and my soul. A time for discipline. A time to slow down and be present with myself.
Spanish
Learning something new can be hard. It takes practice and time and dedication. I have some big travel plans I'm working on (more on that soon), but these plans will be almost entirely impossible if I can't speak Spanish. Luckily for me, Doulingo is free and I know a ton of people that speak Spanish, so I have a lot of support here. More than anything I am curious what will happen if I set aside 30 minutes every day to learn and practice Spanish. That would be 10,980 minutes of practice, and that seems like a good place to start.
I am dedicated to taking time each day to engage with this new language. A time to strengthen my speaking skills and my understanding. A time for pushing myself. A time to slow down and be present with myself.
Great, glad I figured all this out.
But here's the thing: I am not going to start doing any of these things in January. I am way too restless to stand around and wait for December to decide to be over.
The reality is that if we want something, we shouldn't wait- we should act. Standing still doesn't move us any closer to the things we want to achieve.
So I already started. The work has already begun. Resolutions start now.