My New Year’s Resolution: Frivolity and Fun

Thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Almost everybody is talking about them at this time of year. I prefer to pick themes for the year.  The theme I have picked is ” frivolity and fun”.  I didn’t do a lot of pondering about this theme. It suddenly came to me as I was taking a walk.  But before I tell you more about how I see this playing out, let me explain why pick a theme and not resolutions, and specific goals as my starting point for the New Year.

Themes are great because they don’t apply only to one area of your life, but provide the framework for your whole life, a way to explore, and a perspective to use when looking at goals.  You don’t achieve a theme, but it helps you achieve things, and also look more deeply into issues that are holding you back.  Here’s an example from my theme last year- which was “Completions”, where I put my focus on completing projects in all the different areas of my life. This theme has led to a lot of learning.

Being a “modern renaissance soul” I love to start projects but often I find I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and have trouble finishing  them. So the theme of “completions” led me to look at this pattern, and how to go about changing it.  It led me to examine deeply what were the elements of successful projects that I did, what made the difference between abandoning a project  and taking it to the finish line.  I managed to complete a lot of projects that had been hanging over me for some time, as well as some new projects I took on.  For that I feel a real sense of accomplishment.

However other  creative projects like my book, I did not complete.  I recognized that I needed to pull back and rethink my book, so that it truly reflected some of the deeper discoveries I have been making this year about creativity, and getting one’s projects out in the world.  I also made many mistakes and took on too many things, continuing some of the behavior that I was doing my best to get away from. However having the theme of  “Completions” allowed me to be more conscious when I strayed, and to stay on track more of the time.

Last years theme of Completions” will be with me this year too. All the discoveries I made, I am using to help me plan out my goals and projects for this year.  I also am ready to embrace my new theme ” Frivolity and Fun,”  because I am feeling the need to balance the work on my big projects , with time off and joy breaks.  There’s an old saying all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and I think too much work has made me a “dull girl,”  and has taken me away from the kind of balanced and joyful life, I really want to live.

Like “Completions” this theme is a challenge for me. I have a lot of family conditioning and belief systems that get in the way of me letting loose and having fun.  So paradoxically at first, I will have to work a little at bringing more fun and frivolity into my life. I will be using the energy modalities I have learned to release my puritan work ethic and all the other beliefs that keep me from enjoying life to the full.

I’d love to hear from your ideas on this. Do you find it easy to take breaks and have fun. What kind of things do you do to have fun? Or do you have a hard task master in your head that you keeps you chained to your desk or other work.  Please write and tell me.

I also will be blogging on this topic with some of my insights and discoveries  as I journey to bring more fun into my life.