What are you enjoying right now?
We thought we would change up Favorites for the holiday season. Today, the Facts & Trends staff discusses their favorite New Year’s resolutions.
But we also want to hear from you. Have you kept a resolution from the past? Are you making one this year? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @FactsAndTrends.
Aaron Earls (@WardrobeDoor), online editor: As is usually the case for me, my resolutions for the year involve reading and writing. Other bigger things, like priorities with my family and my faith, are too important to address only once a year. But a new year provides a chance to set goals and markers for moving forward with hobbies and passions.
I want to read more, as my personal reading declined since finishing school in 2012. I particularly want to finish reading all of the C.S. Lewis books that I haven’t gotten to yet.
Instead of missing out on sleep, I want to try to plan my writing times better. Carving at those moments away from late at night will help me be better in most every other aspect of life, since I will be more well-rested.
Carol Pipes (@CarolPipes), editor: My resolution for 2015 is to learn a new language—specifically Italian. In July I’ll be traveling to northern Italy with a group of high school students to partner with a local evangelical church.
We’ll be coming alongside this church to help with some children’s events. I don’t necessarily need (or expect) to be fluent, but I’d like to be able to have a simple conversation with the people we’ll be working with.
Matt Erickson (@_Matt_Erickson), managing editor: I don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions, though at times I’ve made plans to read through the Bible in a year (and enjoyed mixed success in that endeavor). There was one year, though, when I thought it would be cool to track my running mileage and go for 1,000 miles for the year. I actually made it, and that was pretty satisfying.
Lately, I’m of the mind that developing good habits is more important that setting specific goals or making particular resolutions. I’ve also been learning how important it is to set very small goals if you do set goals. When we set small goals, we tend to achieve them and even far surpass them.
When our goals are too big, however, we tend to give up when we fall behind a little or fail in some respect. Perhaps this year I’ll try to set some really small goals along with thinking through what habits can help me reach them.
Bob Smietana (@BobSmietana), senior writer: I want to run a marathon before I turned 50. It might be in Mississippi on Valentines Day, or Atlanta in March. Or Nashville in April. But I will run 26.2 miles this year, before April 30.
A bit of context. I spent 30 years as a couch potato, which ruined my health and left me with type 2 Diabetes, a life-threatening condition that affects million of Americans. I got off the couch, mostly because I didn’t want to die.
Twenty-minutes of walking a day turned to 40 minutes, then slowing to running. First a 5k, then a half marathon, then a 20-mile run this past fall in training. The next step is a marathon.
Running changed my life. My health is better. So is my outlook on life—especially since I remember the power of putting on foot in front of another. So get off the couch. You’ll never know where your feet might take you this year.
Katie Shull (@KShull), graphic designer: I resolve not to make New Years resolutions. #1 because I never keep them and #2 if you see something messed up — you should fix it now, don’t wait until next year! So in 2015, I resolve to take each day as it comes, trust God to show me where I need work, and deal with it as the need arises.
