Twenty Ten

Happy New Year! I know I'm a week late, but I have been diligently working on my resolution... haven't you? With most resolutions, people tend to dream up an ideal (yet unrealistic) self for the new year. This usually works for the first couple of weeks, but then you get so used to the new year that you forget why you proclaimed your resolution in the first place.

This year my resolution is "everything in moderation." This includes alcohol, food, planning, and spending. Originally my resolution was a long list of "exercise every day" and "only eat healthy foods" and "don't drink alcohol during the week" and "stop buying frivolous items on the Internet." Then I went to my favorite Saturday morning Ashtanga yoga class on January 2nd. The theme of the class was resolution (of course), but the instructor encouraged us to sum up our resolutions in an overall emotion or goal. Something broad. Something hopeful. Something you can actually achieve while still enjoying yourself. I encourage you to take another look at your resolution and see if you can boil it down to a general goal; I believe you will be much more successful at accomplishing it.

By the way, please remember to refer to this year as "Twenty Ten" - not "Two Thousand and Ten." I know it's only two more syllables but the former just sounds better, don't you think?

And let's take a moment to reflect on this decade... if you're from my generation (born between 1984 and 1986) this decade covers your years of adolescence. We began the decade entering high school, and ended it a year or two out of college. These are the most essential (and easy) years of our life: our personality takes a stronger shape, we make essential decisions that directly affect our future, we form lasting relationships with people who were once strangers.

Take this metaphor; If our life is comparable to a plane ride, then this decade was the period after you take off, when you're just coasting in low air, excited for your destination and eager about what you will do during your ride. Well that part is over and the rest of the ride might get a little bumpy. But rest assured you will land safely at your final destination.