Run a marathon. Stop biting my nails. Stop swearing. Re-learn French. These make my New Year’s resolution list nearly (AKA actually every) single year. The marathon hasn’t happened. The swearing comes in lulls triggered by being overworked or feeling mighty cheeky after a couple drinks. Then there’s the French – a language I studied through high school and then lost as I immersed myself in speaking Spanish with the Argentinians during my stint in Buenos Aires. I have put my little Rosetta Stone headset in my eager ears every year, resolving to do interviews en français, but much to my chagrin, it hasn’t stuck. And when it comes to the biting of the nails – well, it still happens with a turbulent flight or a stressful day. It’s unladylike. But then again, so is the swearing. Dammit.
So here’s my question: what is the goal of a New Years resolution? I often find myself wallowing in disappointment when I set a goal I can’t achieve. Of measuring each day’s triumph or failure as a benchmark of how the year is going. And at 34 years old, I’m over that.
This year I resolve to not have a resolution. If I can’t run a marathon, that’s okay. (I’m getting older – my knees are bothering me.) If it takes me a couple more years to lock down that French tutor and nail the language j’adore oh so much, that’s cool too.
My nails will be fine, and if I toss out a four letter word once in a blue moon, well frankly I think it adds character.
For this new year, the only thing I aim to do is to approach life playfully. To laugh and enjoy, to keep my standards high but my level of self-acceptance higher.
My castmate and friend, Gina, listened to me rattle on about my plans for the hiatus, bullet pointing the multitudinous events of my schedule and planned jaunts from one place to the next. She stopped me. “Meg, I will just say one thing. Make sure you leave room for magic.”
And that is my point. My New Year’s resolution is to leave room for magic. To make my plans, and be okay if they sometimes break. To set my goals, but to be open to change. To let the magic know that there is an open door policy with me in 2016 and that it is always welcome to join the party.
I invite you to do the same.
Have a beautiful, blissful, and incredibly magical 2016. So grateful to be with you on the ride.
Images via: Instagram