By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
The list of New Year’s Resolutions is a hackneyed genre (Good Housekeeping, Parade, Pioneer Women, Country Living, Financial Times). Generally, they are quickly forgotten, and known to be so, leaving the motive for making them unclear. Apparently, for some definition of “new year,” humanity has been making New Year’s Resolutions, in one form or another, since the Babylonians.
This looks like a lazy post, but it’s actually not; I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions for some time. And since 2023 was such a pest of a year, it makes sense to see if 2024 can be improved, at all. These resolutions are all small-scale and personal; no “End World Hunger.” They are also precise and actionable (nothing like “Make time for family” or “Try Something New Each Month”). However, in the aggregate, I think they will strengthen me for the year to come. Hackneyed though the genre is, my own list is not that different from those linked to above (though I have not included any stock photos of carefully diverse yuppies doing worthy things about the home, for which I apologize). Here it is:
1) More snark.
2) Go easier on CDC and HICPAC, they’re doing their best.
3) Less doomscrolling.
4) More reading, especially serious books.
5) Don’t relax before sleeping by watching YouTube, the infinite scroll is a seductive time-sink. Keep a sleep diary.
6) No more snacks.
7) Maintain and if need be upgrade my Covid protocol.
8) Finish that novel. Then sell it.
9) Learn to be less prone to irritation and anger, whether about big things or small.
Focusing on #9 first: According to IDRlabs; Multi-Dimensional Anger Test — an online survey popular on TikTok — I am “22.2% more susceptible to anger MR SUBLIMINAL Dammit, only 22?! than the average person.” On the bright side, another cheesy online test gives this result: “Your score is 10: Minimal Clinical Anger Issues.” So there’s that! No matter the surveys, however, it’s what I feel that matters. I don’t want to be walking around with V-ed eyebrows and compressed lips (even if that’s how I look when I’m really focused at the computer, and given that I have a critic’s mind, and that’s the look of a critic). I don’t think anger is good for my vascular system, and I don’t think it’s good for the people around me; I don’t want to be the sort of person people think they have to walk quietly around. Or walk away from. Of course, I said “Learn.” I’m not sure how to achieve this, so I’ll have to study up. And be aware!
On #1-#7: These all seem achievable to me, although we shall see. My life is optimized for blogging (and avoiding Covid), I keep a not unrigid schedule to meet my deadlines, and have a clear picture of places I go and places I do not (basically, 3Cs spaces). These resolutions are further optimizations. For example, when I say #6 “No more snacks,” what I mean, operationally, is “Don’t go to the store immediately before Water Cooler and buy a snack, along with milk, to initiate the writing process.” (I will, however, continue to buy the milk.*) That is, there’s only that single context to change my behavior in; I don’t have to contend with a generalized urge to consume donuts or Tastykakes wherever encountered. As for doomscrolling and YouTube vs. books, I feel the need to rise above the newsflow and impose stronger frameworks upon it. Those frameworks are generally only available in a scholarly or at least journal context; they demand serious, sustained attention, they are ideas to be worked with, and I do think that over-consumption of social media blunts that skill. This is a time to become smarter, not stupider. Not an easy task, given this timeline!
On #8, the novel… I’m still buying green bananas, but I do feel an urge to round out my life with a genuine artistic work of some kind. Perhaps a year is overly ambitious. But maybe when I get rid of all that stupid doomscrolling, and discipline myself to write 500 words a day, say, I’ll be happy with the outcome.
But enough about me. Let’s talk about you! What, if any, are your New Year’s Resolutions?
NOTE * Every article I can find says that milk does not increase mucus production. All I can say, is that I need to keep Kleenex by my desk when I start drinking it. And getting rid of whatever that mucus carries along with it — PM2.5, viruses of all sorts — is good. So N = 1, here.