Thursday, January 3, 2013

Not Just Another Resolution

 
I make it a point every year not to make a New Year's Resolution. I have found that resolutions are made with good intentions but they always seem to end in failure. I know that I need to make some changes in my life and set some goals for the future, but I will try my best not to treat them as resolutions. I am a goal-oriented person and I hope that setting goals for myself will help me to implement some positive life-long changes. In 2013, my goal is to become a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, athlete, employer, employee, neighbor, teacher, student, leader, housekeeper, communicator, and listener. I would like to be a better example for my kids when it comes to eating right, being healthy, being happy, laughing more, complaining less, being responsible, being accountable, not getting caught up in petty gossip, and doing for others.
Yikes. Re-reading this, I guess it sounds like a pretty big goal.
 
 
In order to improve in all of these areas of my life, I will need to work harder at being there for others. For my family, for my friends. Not putting off contacting a friend when I know they need someone to talk to. Not running an extra mile when I know I can pick the kids up 10 minutes earlier. Not putting off a menial task that ends up snow-balling because I procrastinated. Doing something nice for someone else just because I can and then teaching my kids that if everyone did this, the world might just be a better place.
 
I need to feel more connected to what matters the most in my life and it has dawned on me that in order to become more connected, it means that I need to be less connected. It seems that these days, we are all constantly connected - either via iPhones, iPods, iPads, computers, cell phones, Facebook, Strava, Twitter and in this world of technology we have lessened real contact with people. Look around in a restaurant, the adults are texting or playing on Facebook while the kids are playing video games. Conversations are minimal. We went to a concert in Vegas with 20,000+ people. If you looked down from our nose-bleed section seats, you could literally see hundreds, if not thousands, of lit-up phone screens. I don't know how many times my kids have asked me a question that I didn't even hear because I was too busy reading an article online or sending a text. I am guilty of this. We are all guilty of this. Don't get me wrong, I love technology. I love that with the click of a few buttons, we can find an answer to the most random of questions (most recently "How big is the screen at Cowboys Stadium?"). I love that my kids have something to occupy their time on a long road trip. I love being able to keep up with my oldest of friends and see what they are up to now, but it keeps me from actually contacting them just to say "Hi" and "I've missed chatting with you."
 
When I was younger, the youth minister at my church told me that my gift from God was the ability to listen. People talk to me because I listen. It is in my nature to be friendly to everyone and a lot of times, I have strangers telling me things that they would normally only tell a good friend (just ask John - it drives him a bit crazy!). I am a social creature, that is how I thrive. I have become so busy and so caught up in being "connected" that my idea of "social" has become interlocked with technology.
 
I have stopped using my gift. I am going to try harder to start listening again and in doing so, I hope that all of those areas in my life that need improvement will actually improve. There are so many things that I want to make better about myself and sometimes it feels like I am juggling too many balls in the air, but I know there is a way to find the perfect balance between working full time, being a GOOD mom, and being a GOOD athlete. I will make the time this year to fit in all of the important things in my life and if that means I need to disconnect more, then so be it. I'm not done with technology, far from it. But I think it's time to be less available, less connected. Maybe I'll see what happens if I turn off my phone today. Something tells me that the world won't end. And even better yet, I'll also have my kids turn off that video game and pull out a board game. We need to work on being connected.
 
Find that "thing" that is important to you and THRIVE in it, whatever it may be.
LIVE every moment. LAUGH every day. LOVE beyond words. And don't be afraid to turn off the electronics every now and then. The world may be a better place for it.




 
 

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