New Year's Resolutions

I've made two resolutions this year so far: 1) Write at least one paragraph every weekday, and 2) Go a month without complaining about anything.

Resolution #1 may be relatively easy, but I am going to do it in blog form which makes it harder. When I post something publicly, I feel intense self-imposed pressure to write golden prose. But I know that the success of any endeavor is attempting to do it, day in, day out, with less focus on the quality and more focus on getting it "out there." And I will be careful not to beat myself up, because there will be times I "fall off the wagon."

Resolution #2 will be very difficult. But I already have found myself changing my approach to language. I have started to remove, "I wish" and "I can't stand" and "I don't want," to "I would like." So, in deciding not to complain, I am discovering maybe the most pernicious element of a complaint: it is passive, and I am trying to live my life as proactively as possible.