Since I’m a recovering J (see about One Month Wisdom for explanation), I am still a bit addicted to resolutions. I spend the last weekend of each year with a friend, having an in-home spa weekend and pondering my new year’s resolutions. The website six-word memoirs suggested that people make six-word resolutions for 2011. Six words? How on earth could I do that when I had two pages of things I wanted to do in 2011? I could hardly imagine narrowing it down to 12 items (one for each month, which was my original goal). But six words?
I reminded myself that this year, if it’s going to be about anything, is going to be about allowing my true nature to overcome years of habit and reinforced J-behavior. So I gave myself permission to throw out my list for 2011. Every time I wanted to write a new list, I tried to write six words instead. Amazingly, it only took me two days to find the perfect six-word resolution for 2011. It’s amazing how productive you can be when you allow yourself to follow your instincts.
My 6-Word Resolution: Fully Embrace the Moment of Transition
Over lunch with a friend, I was describing the problem I have with transitions. Not big transitions like changing jobs or moving or getting married, but small – every day – transitions. Getting up, going to lunch, stopping work to go to the gym. I even find it hard to transition to activities I’m highly motivated to do – like visit my nieces or go on a hike. It’s not that I don’t want to go on the hike, it’s that I often don’t want to stop doing what I’m already doing. I don’t want to transition.
Molly explained to me, simply, that I was a P. I’m a person who thinks of the world in terms of activities, not in terms of minutes or hours. I prefer to experience something fully before I move on to the next thing. Why yes, I’d like to sleep for 12 hours and then go to work. Why yes, I’d like to stay at work to finish this interesting project. Why yes, I’d like to stay in the woods for another two days.
Unfortunately, my life is often carved up into short periods of time and rarely do I get to do anything I want to its completion. I’ve always felt bad about this – that I’m not one of those people who hops out of bed to go to a job I like (I truly do) or that sometimes, when I’m reading a book, I’m unmotivated to visit with a friend I adore. Could it be that simple? Could it be that my true nature was just out of sync with our highly organized and scheduled culture?
I decided to give my 6-word resolution a try.
Since I can’t do everything I like, whenever I like, for however long I like, I will at least give myself a chance to embrace that transition. I will – briefly – ponder what I’ve liked about the activity I’m doing (yum, this bed is nice and warm and I have so enjoyed sleeping in it) and then – fully and completely – embrace the opportunity to transition to the next activity (yes, I’m looking forward to breakfast!). And you know what? It’s working.
One Month Wisdom 