A New Year, A New Challenge

I am usually not one to wait for a new year to declare a resolution. A large majority of New Year’s resolutions aren’t kept anyway. Maybe the goals are unrealistic or maybe it’s the lack of self-discipline. I think the idea is a little over-rated. Why wait for a new year to do something you wish you were already doing?

I know that if I feel very strongly about something that itself inspires me to challenge myself to adopt better habits for a period of time, and it usually sticks long term. For example, during my undergrad I read an article about how inefficient large scale meat production is and decided I was going to try out being a vegetarian and eight years later, I still am. A couple of years ago I decided to not buy anything new for a year. The rationale being there are a lot of things that I want, but there are not a lot of things that I need and if I really wanted something like clothes or a camera, I can find it second hand. By and large, it is still what I do today.

I’ll admit that some habits do not stick. Every day I tell myself: tomorrow I am going to wake up earlier and maybe clean the apartment or go to work earlier so I can come home earlier, but every morning I hit snooze… Maybe I am just not that passionate about waking up in the morning.

I do want to start a new habit and this happens to be a new year, so this is my New Year’s Resolution: write a monthly blog.

The reason why I want to write a monthly blog is to practice my writing skills. Now that I am out of school and writing is not a requirement, it is hard to stick with. Writing is important and it is a major way we communicate. Grad school is where I learned to appreciate writing, probably because I had more one on one guidance and after marking few undergraduate assignments, you learn to really appreciate that one student who proof-read their paper. Not to mention, virtually every employer is looking for someone with decent writing skills. It was never my favourite thing to do, but it is something I want to maintain. I hope that by writing a monthly blog, writing will get easier and maybe a little more fun over time.