2018 Is the Year Of Doing Something
I’m in the roughly 41% of Americans who make New Year’s Resolutions every year, compared to 42% of Americans who never do. I don’t understand that 42% percent, but I don’t begrudge them their life choices. I love a clean slate after the holiday decorations come down, a fresh start with a new planner. I mean, I love any reason for a new planner. But resolutions, to me, are about more than a fresh page of paper with “January 1” stamped across the top. They are endlessly hopeful.
I live for lists. Checking things off, writing things down, watching the tasks I’ve completed disappear from my plate with satisfaction. This is the part of me that loves resolutions, loves the idea of a list for the year ahead. It’s thrilling to me to see an entire year spread out before me, and to ask myself, “What do you want this year to look like?” I don’t just mean the typical resolutions to lose a few pounds, or to call my mother more often. I mean resolutions that shape a whole way of thinking about the year ahead. I’ve made and met resolutions to publish in magazines, to sell quilt patterns, to read a certain number of books, to travel to new places. That’s the possibility I love and look forward to.
Last year I took Gretchen Rubin’s advice and chose a word instead. I was still so shell-shocked from the election that the idea of concrete goals was too much. My 2017 word was “more.” That’s it, no list of goals or directives, just a word. And…it worked. I read more, I protested more, I wrote more. I left freelancing for a fantastic full time staff writer job. I worked on dialing back the chaos of thoughts and tasks in my head and focused on just enjoying everything more. Especially in the national trash fire that was 2017, this felt like a radical act of self care. To push for more in the face of a loss felt empowering, like a middle finger to those trying to take something away from the rest of us.
I want to keep it up for 2018, but this year I’m adopting a phrase — do something. I don’t just want more this year, I want to do something. Every day. I’ve tried those make something every day projects on Instagram, and I love the idea that my time and interests will always be focused on crafting something new. But some days that’s just not life. There are days when I have the flu, or when a dinner I’ve made 50 times before is as close as I get to making something. And days when I’ve done 5 really interesting things that got me excited about the universe, but none of them involved making anything.
But I can do something every day. And think of how broad that is, the possibility that exists in that phrase. I can work on a quilt or protest outside my congressman’s office. I can finish reading a book, write 2,000 words, make a donation, volunteer, do something to help Puerto Rico, call a friend, pay for the coffee order behind me at the drive thru. I can fight the patriarchy or make my daughter’s next Halloween costume. Plan a trip, have great sex, start a project around the house, go to a new museum, or learn to make macarons — maybe without Instagramming that second one. One thing, just one thing every day that makes me look back and say, “I DID something today.” And hopefully more often than not, it will make me a little bit better, or help make the world a little bit better, too.
That’s what I want out of 2018. I feel a lot less despair in the air than I did a year ago today, but it isn’t gone completely. It’s a big political year, and I’m sure the news is just going to get weirder and weirder for quite a while. But we are still people living our lives. We have our kids’ birthdays to plan. They need to get to gymnastics, the groceries need to be bought, homework needs to get done. There are everyday good things to enjoy and celebrate and still be engaged with the world around us. I feel like my phrase this year is more like a mantra, like Emile Zola’s “I am here to live out loud.” And it’s Glittersquid in a nutshell. Do something every day, and mean it.
