A Few More Hormones: The Year of "No"

I'm not particularly fond of New Year's Resolutions. They are typically quite finite; and, being such, just do it already and quit waiting for the ball to drop to start over. Instead, I favor the idea of a one word theme. Something that will encompass many things that you do. My co-worker, who has become the day version of my husband as she deals with my ramblings and provides checks and balances - reasoned out the possible themes for both of us. Mine is the year of "No". It started as "No - but not negative". Then it became "No - with a positive redirection". And then I said, "No" (fitting)... it's just going to be plain "No".

As I thought about that process, I realized I was qualifying the "No" (defeating the purpose of the one-word theme) because somehow as human beings we feel bad about negative spin. And similarly, we feel bad when we say "No". We always say "Yes" which usually leads to over extension and exhaustion, to which we then complain, defeating the whole point of saying "Yes" in the first place!

And now it leads me here... That same co-worker shared the below article with me which I found so poignant given the timing in my life. And here are my takeaways: There is often this mythical standard that leads us all to want to pretend we live our life in a magazine article. We live our life so that at any moment if US Weekly were to interview us (yes, I know there are more sophisticated publications), we could use all the cliches about love that you would find in a Hallmark card about our marriages / relationships and that, yes, we had quinoa with dried fruit for breakfast, steamed spinach with salmon at lunch, and a juice cleanse drink for dinner, snacking only on almonds throughout the day. **Okay - that last part I know exists for some (my sister for one), but really for the most of the people in US Weekly, it's just the line you are "supposed" to use. We become so wrapped up in what we are supposed to say, feel, do, that it ends up being just a plan or process that we are here to execute, less than about just living your life and owning every part of it good or bad!

Take a read, have a chuckle, don't feel bad that you agree in part. Strive to do be better and be better, but don't forget to take a step back and realize - it's not half bad...

Footnote regarding my co-worker: My hope is to have her guest author on this blog at some point as she and her husband will soon be the author(s) of the following books I've encouraged them to title: I Don't Even Own a F**king Crockpot: A City Mom's Guide to Parenting (her version) and 12 Grey T-shirts: A City Dad's Guide to Simplified Parenting (his version). We're just trying to find the right time to meet with Simon & Schuster.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html