A lot of us still have pandemic trauma. We started 2020 with grand plans — mine included finally travelling, after spending most of 2019 on pregnancy-related bedrest. I wanted to run a half-marathon. Rent out a space to create a mentorship community for young lawyers, while providing them their first “office”.
Then CoViD happened. All resolutions and plans disappeared, replaced only by obsessive sanitizing, and for some, a great sense of dread and anxiety.
For 2023, I have decided to quietly walk into the year with doable monthly resolutions, instead of having an ambitious and bold annual list. Here are three that I can share with you:
1. Exercise for at least 22 days in January: I will not get a gym membership. I do not have a weight goal. I just want to exercise for an hour every day. It’s Jan. 5, and so far, it has not been difficult to achieve that goal.
Some days, I biked fast. Other days, I leisurely walked or did yoga after another sleepless night with a toddler who suddenly wakes up at 1 am, and decides to have a singing session with her mother.
2. Visit the new museum in the City, and watch The Great Little Hunter at Mugna Gallery: Dumaguete has so many cultural events and places, and if Ian Casocot does not post about it on his Facebook page, most likely I would miss the event.
So for this year, I will proactively check what’s going on in our City, and go to at least one event every month.
I work for an international NGO, and when I gave birth, I decided to just work from home instead of going to our office. It can get lonely and isolating. If I don’t try hard enough, I can even spend the entire day without feeling the sun on my face. Aside from that being unhealthy, that’s also kind of sad. I need to get out more.
3. No online shopping for January: So far, this has been the hardest resolution on my list. The pandemic has made me very dependent on online shopping, and this has to change. I motivate myself by thinking that the carbon footprint of online shopping is immense, and our tiny house is now exploding under a mountain of bubble wrap and boxes.
I read somewhere that there’s an elite seven percent in the world who manage to stick to their New Year’s resolutions. By making my list simple and short-term, I hope to be a part of that elite seven percent.
There is no medal for this achievement. Just a chance to give ourselves a pat in the back for accomplishing our goals not for the year, but only for the first month. Slow and steady. Quiet and small. Calm and consistent. That’s how I intend to journey through 2023.
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Author’s email: goldabenjamin@gmail.com
