Two Month Check-In
Written by Kora Quinn, Lifestyle Staff Writer
Nearly two full months into 2020, most of us have already forgotten our New Year’s resolutions. We tell ourselves self-betterment can wait until next year and ignore the guilt that follows until, before we know it, that’s forgotten too. It’s a vicious cycle I always find myself in. To break from this routine, this year I decided to work on a different type of resolution that I felt was more realistic. Rather than committing to exercising daily or skipping zero classes each semester, I came up with one word to represent the entirety of my New Year’s resolution, and this year, my word is courage.
I come from a family that loves their comfort zones. Although I find it easier than the rest of them to try new things, I am completely content where I am. When it comes to making decisions between something known and something foreign, I only choose the latter when I absolutely must. This is why my word of the year is courage.
I want to try new things. I want to explore corners of my interests I didn’t even know existed, and I couldn’t do that from where I stood at the end of 2019.
Checking in, two months later, I am beyond excited to see the progress I have made in such a short amount of time. From things as small as mastering the bus system to as large as reaching out to and working with publications that will help develop my skills and bring me that much closer to my overarching life goals, I have taken more than just a few steps out of my comfort zone.
By making your New Year’s resolution a broadly defined value as opposed to something narrow (eating less sugar, keeping a planner), you can do one to two things every day to fulfill that resolution, suddenly making your goal feel accomplishable. For me, living by courage encompasses an abundance of things — meeting new people, communicating my emotions, trying new food — just as discipline or honesty can be an array of daily tasks. Once you start living by your values expressed in a few keywords, you are on your way to molding yourself into the person you’ve always wanted to be.