So Let's Give it Up for the New Year

Making resolutions for the new year is not a revolutionary concept. Every year hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people take the arbitrary flip of a calendar page as the catalyst to pull out the sponge and bucket, clean off the chalkboard, erase the indiscretions and bad choices of the previous year, and declare a do-over. Diets are started (again), gym memberships are purchased, grand blueprints are drafted that will make the architect more money in a job that will be more satisfying, promises to spend more time with family are made. Intentions are good, motives pure, but in reality the number of resolutions left unfulfilled when the last page of the calendar turns are staggering and can lead one to lose hope in resolutions all together.

That is, if one only focuses on the list of items left unaccomplished.

A few days ago, my coach Amanda challenged everyone at Brickhouse to "let go of the typical goal setting strategies and dig deeper." I read the blog post when it first showed up in my newsfeed, and I thought about it for the rest of the day. Then I read it again. I already knew this year, thinking I had failed at all of my goals for 2013, that I wasn't going to make a typical resolution list like I did last year. I thought back on the year from my current headspace (which hasn't been very positive lately - defeatist has been thrown my way a few times) and all I could think of were the things I didn't do, the goals I didn't reach, the deadlines I set and missed.

Then I read this post on Words by Lisbeth: The One Resolution That Might Work. Lisbeth basically says to, "Make one resolution for your ENTIRE year. One. This resolution only has two words, and I’m going to give you the first word: Be ______________."

Both of these posts resonated with me, so I've spent the last few days thinking about my Desired Feelings, Highest Values, and Needs for 2014 and wondering if I could encompass all that thought into a two word resolution: Be (insert feeling here). When I sit at this keyboard on December 31, 2014, how do I want to feel looking back on the year that just passed? Where do I want to be? What do I want to have accomplished? What do I need to do over the next 52 weeks to be sitting at the keyboard feeling the way I decided I wanted to feel when I wrote this post?

I knew that I had made a list of 13 Resolutions for 2013, but I couldn't really even remember what they were. I was able to find them and when I reviewed the list I found that I hadn't failed as much as I thought I had.

The items I starred are ones I am counting as successes. Even though I haven't been as successful with diet and exercise as I wanted to be, I am extremely glad that I have been able to maintain my A1C levels and stay off of medication for diabetes (#2). I competed in not 1, but 3 meets in 2013 (#6) and improved each time. I actually even started to like wearing my singlet. Though I can't completely check off everything on the list, I know that I made some progress on almost all of the goals I set, and with the exception of running another Rugged Maniac, I think most of these will remain goals I have for myself in the coming year. In truth, looking back my 1st and 13th goals are fitting bookends to the list as they are the most important and overarching. I think I could count these among my highest values and needs. Health and Self-Reliance.

Then I was browsing through my Facebook Year in Review and was reminded of even more of the successes and good moments I had in 2013. Granted, most of them were CrossFit and Weightlifting milestones (hitting a 100lb snatch, cleaning 130lbs, deadlifting over 200lbs, competing in every event of the 2013 CrossFit Games Open, getting my first double unders) and the memories that will stay with me (the DCF AM/PM Throw Down, volunteering at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Regionals, finishing Murph for the first time, competing at the MDUSA Open Tryouts, doing Hope on the National Mall in DC, being back home in Roanoke for the 2013 BHC Garage Games). It really wasn't such a bad year after all.

Then I saw this picture and realized what my resolution would be. The feelings that I want to chase are reflected in this picture.

 

 

The feelings are proud, and accomplished, and happy. Most of all happy. This picture was at the culmination of my first year on this journey, right before I left for my competition in Richmond. I had been training hard for the last few months preparing for the competition. I felt strong and ready and excited. I was at the lowest weight I had been in a long time. I had been eating well. I felt good. I want to feel that way again, and better.

 

My resolution for 2014 is Be Happy.

 

I still need to do some work to figure out the highest values and needs to get there, but all this next year my focus is on being happy. Choosing happiness. Laughing more, crying less. Living life and not just existing. Not being as focused on what I can and can't do in the gym - I know a lot of this year is probably going to be spent not hitting PRs and milestones, at least not above and beyond the ones I hit in 2013. The cool thing I realized when I talked to my coaches a few weeks ago is that I'm in a really great place, even though I've been injured. Especially since I've been injured. It's almost like I get to start the journey all over again. All those really amazing feelings I got to experience when I started CrossFit, and all those mile markers I passed along the way, I'll get to feel and see again.

 

I'm excited about 2014. Let's get to work.