Rather
than New Year’s resolutions, I recommend this plan: Choose three words that have personal meaning to you that you will use as
guideposts for 2018. No, I didn’t come up with that idea – Chris Brogan
did. Chris is a major social media guru
and I first learned of this idea several years ago as it is a big thing among
my nonprofit online community. You can read his whole article on this subject here.
Chris further explains: “Make the words such that they influence your
choice of actions, encourage you to decide in favor of your goals, and guide
you towards lasting results that you want to experience throughout the year.”
That all sounds oriented to
people in the prime of their careers but it works for us retired Grandmas
too. I like the idea of having a guiding
focus for the year much better than making resolutions that are not going to
happen.
Here are my three words for 2018.
Love, resilience, action. Let me
explain what each means to me.
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| Still crazy in love after all these years |
I am 69 years old and have
been married to my husband for over 47 years. We raised two children who have
blessed us with three grandchildren. I know what love means. I am incredibly lucky to have my children live
nearby and this means I get to see my grandchildren often and be part of their
lives. This year, I want to consciously
make sure I always cherish this privilege, try to always be there when needed and
be receptive to the love that is offered to me.
As a strong willed, independent spirited person these are not idle goals.
Resilience
There is truth in
the adage “It isn’t easy getting old.”
My mind still wants to multitask but my brain says forget it. My mind wants to do the things I did 30 years
ago, but my body does not cooperate.
Adapting to change – not only in the world but also in my own
capabilities – is important. That doesn’t
mean giving up but it does mean being willing to make adjustments. Webster’s definition of resilience is: “an
ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Here is a small example of something we have
done in the last several years. We have
hosted a New Year’s Eve party for close to 40 years. A few years ago we changed the time of the
party to 6 to 10 PM. Turned out everyone
liked that idea. Since then, every year
I have modified the food I prepare to be a little more simple and guess what - that is just fine. I am not
giving up entertaining but I will definitely be open to help and modifying
plans. In 2018 I plan to apply this to
other activities – rather than give up things, what adjustments can I make to still do
the things I want to do. For instance, I still plan to go into New York to toy shows for material for this blog but perhaps I don't have to be at the Javitz Center at 8 AM for the early morning special events by host companies at Toy Fair. Well...maybe...if the weather cooperates....
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| At Turtle Back Zoo for Light Show in the frigid cold with my grandson |
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| My grandson with his Mom doing more of the work baking Christmas cookies this year |
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| Opening Parade for Toy Fair 2017 - 8:30 AM at Javitz Center |
Action
This builds on
resilience. As I get older I realize
that the clock is ticking on my being able to do things that I want to do and/or
haven’t done yet. Don’t delay! This doesn’t just mean taking those trips
that I thought about but didn’t take or doing wild things on a bucket list. It means doing things with my grandchildren that
I can but may be a stretch. It means
being activist about issues that are important to me. It means volunteering to do things that
require physical energy. I am determined
to not tell myself to slow down too much while at the same time being cognizant
of what makes sense.
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| On mentoring trip with my high school - at Lincoln Center, NYC on a very cold day |
I hope to do all of these activities in 2018 and more. But also I want to be smart enough to make adjustments if necessary.
So these are my three guiding
words for 2018 - Love, Resilience and Action. I recommend this
activity. Chris Brogan says to “Write these words down. Post them everywhere.
Schedule them to pop up in your calendar. And use these words as part of your
decision-making process every day.” Well
that may be more than I do, but I do plan to have them pop up once a month in
my calendar.
What do you think of this idea? What are your words for 2018?
