barrettchase.com

barrettchase.com
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Mon, 02 Jan 2012

Like most people, I made a list of New Year's resolutions. I won't post them here, mainly because I've found that whenever I post about plans to do something, I never end up doing it. This runs counter to the advice you read online. I'm told that you're supposed to brag about your future plans to everyone, and then the social pressure will force you to actually follow through with those things. I find the opposite to be true. Once you tell people that you're doing something great, they'll mentally categorize you as the type of person who does great things without ever following up and making sure that you accomplished what you said you'd accomplish. There's no incentive to actually follow through as long as you don't mind being something of a fraud, which I don't mind at all.

When I come up with resolutions, I start out with a sort of vague, fuzzy image of what I want my life to resemble, and work from there. I absolutely avoid absolutes and specifically avoid specifics. You'll never find a number in any of my resolutions. No plans to exercise 20 minutes a day six days a week. That is a recipe for failure. My resolutions go like this: read more, write more, drink more water. Stretch.

These are actual items on the list. It strikes me that the whole list is pretty leisurely. How strange is it that I have to make a list to resolve to do things that are fun? I constantly have to remind myself to stop eating gross food and start eating good food, to stop watching dumb TV shows or movies and start watching good TV shows or movies, to stop wasting time on boring things and start wasting time on fun things. They're first-world problems of the highest order, but still problems nonetheless.

Lately I've exclusively been reading short stories, which has worked out very well for me. I've read a few collections in their entirety, but mostly I've just picked up a book here or there and read stories at random. There's no page count, no goals. Each reading session is a complete experience. I choose stories based on the length of time I want to spend reading. If I'm tired, I choose a very short story. If I want to read for a longer period of time, I choose a longer story or several stories. If I put a book down and never come back to it, it doesn't matter. This method lines up perfectly with how my mind works.

I always have to use methods like this one to trick myself into doing the things that I actually enjoy doing. My brain is like an obstinate child, and it only seems to be getting worse with age.

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