I wrote recently about how to succeed with new year's resolutions. One of my points was not to share that resolution with anyone in order to ensure you're doing it for yourself, not for others, and that you'll feel less ashamed when you slip up and therefore make it easier to get back up and carry on.
But I have always shared mine because I know that I'm the kind of person more likely to stick to it if I publicly set it in stone. Because I don't want to number among those who have given up. Just like I don't want to number among the 70% of women who choose to eat their stress away.
But this year, my resolutions are simpler, if more numerous. Actually, no. My single resolution is simpler, but I have a few other things I'd like to achieve, time permitting, but either aren't as important, or will happen on their own if they happen at all.
My resolution for 2019: to be able to do qi gong once or twice a week without book or DVD reference.
I have a DVD and the book by Shifu Yan Lei, and I have used it a few times in the past. I used it enough to learn it, roughly, so that I could just use the book, but I've never successfully done it without any guidance. That's my goal. I already have a good grasp on it, so it shouldn't take long to get to that point of confidence, but then I have to enforce its use at least once a week. That's part of why I've not been doing it, because I need the book or DVD, so I can't do it spontaneously, even though it only has to take about 15 minutes. In fact, even though qi gong was a part of my latest 3-month training plan, I have only done it once so far, and unsuccessfully. It sort of defeats the object if I have to stop every minute to check the book.
A lot of people are probably taking on Tai Chi, but as I started qi gong a couple of years ago, I decided there was little point learning something else if I never completed qi gong, especially since they're both so similar.
And why bother at all? Mind-Body Intervention. I am always in my head, and qi gong, like meditation or yoga, is a great way to silence it. But I can't sit still in meditation, though I tried last year, and that didn't catch on, and I take yoga too seriously. Qi gong is a happy medium, as is Tai Chi Chuan. Movement, but without the opportunity for muscles to get too involved. And as I'm a writer, and a fantasy writer to boot, it's easy to...well...not leave my work behind for days at a time. I work out thinking about it, I fall asleep thinking about it, I shower thinking about it, it doesn't stop. So I'm hoping to find a way to silence my head for a few dedicated moments a week.
I'm sticking to my plan of three months of training followed by 1 month of MMA three times a year, and now that I've been at it for almost a year, I already have three very reliable 3-month plans and 12 Core de Force workouts which is more than enough to see me through th year without finding anything new. But as Whitney Simmons is so reliable and her channel is full of videos, and I have a rolling subscription to Women's Health magazine, I can easily make another if needs must. I've also been quite successfully enforcing my resolutions from 2016 (changing my workouts) and 2017 (learn when to back off and take a break), so I'm sure I can manage qi gong, and I don't need to make any changes to my fitness methods. As for 2018's resolution - learn when to step back from my book rather than try to power through writer's block - it's a work in progress, and sometimes it doesn't occur to me until it's too late and I've overcome it after wasting two weeks banging my head against the laptop. But when I recognise writer's block, I've taken to leaping onto the Playstation. One afternoon of video games tends to fix it. Two at most. And far better that than two weeks of pointless struggle.
But I have always shared mine because I know that I'm the kind of person more likely to stick to it if I publicly set it in stone. Because I don't want to number among those who have given up. Just like I don't want to number among the 70% of women who choose to eat their stress away.
But this year, my resolutions are simpler, if more numerous. Actually, no. My single resolution is simpler, but I have a few other things I'd like to achieve, time permitting, but either aren't as important, or will happen on their own if they happen at all.
My resolution for 2019: to be able to do qi gong once or twice a week without book or DVD reference.
I have a DVD and the book by Shifu Yan Lei, and I have used it a few times in the past. I used it enough to learn it, roughly, so that I could just use the book, but I've never successfully done it without any guidance. That's my goal. I already have a good grasp on it, so it shouldn't take long to get to that point of confidence, but then I have to enforce its use at least once a week. That's part of why I've not been doing it, because I need the book or DVD, so I can't do it spontaneously, even though it only has to take about 15 minutes. In fact, even though qi gong was a part of my latest 3-month training plan, I have only done it once so far, and unsuccessfully. It sort of defeats the object if I have to stop every minute to check the book.
A lot of people are probably taking on Tai Chi, but as I started qi gong a couple of years ago, I decided there was little point learning something else if I never completed qi gong, especially since they're both so similar.
And why bother at all? Mind-Body Intervention. I am always in my head, and qi gong, like meditation or yoga, is a great way to silence it. But I can't sit still in meditation, though I tried last year, and that didn't catch on, and I take yoga too seriously. Qi gong is a happy medium, as is Tai Chi Chuan. Movement, but without the opportunity for muscles to get too involved. And as I'm a writer, and a fantasy writer to boot, it's easy to...well...not leave my work behind for days at a time. I work out thinking about it, I fall asleep thinking about it, I shower thinking about it, it doesn't stop. So I'm hoping to find a way to silence my head for a few dedicated moments a week.
Otherwise, there are a couple of things I'd like to achieve. I want my next book finished and published by mid-autumn at the latest - it's nearly finished, I'm hoping it will be polished up by the end of March. I'll begin work on the third and final book of the trilogy immediately after polishing it, but the second will have to simmer for a bit before publishing. But, as I said, this ought to happen without conscious effort.
The next thing is that I'd like to get 2 new collections out on Etsy this year. One I have great ideas for, but it's also immensely daunting and I do think I'm likely to run away from it. I have a list of other themes, though, so I have many options, but the as yet unnamed collection has been in my mind for quite some time and will be starkly different from what I usually do.
I'm sticking to my plan of three months of training followed by 1 month of MMA three times a year, and now that I've been at it for almost a year, I already have three very reliable 3-month plans and 12 Core de Force workouts which is more than enough to see me through th year without finding anything new. But as Whitney Simmons is so reliable and her channel is full of videos, and I have a rolling subscription to Women's Health magazine, I can easily make another if needs must. I've also been quite successfully enforcing my resolutions from 2016 (changing my workouts) and 2017 (learn when to back off and take a break), so I'm sure I can manage qi gong, and I don't need to make any changes to my fitness methods. As for 2018's resolution - learn when to step back from my book rather than try to power through writer's block - it's a work in progress, and sometimes it doesn't occur to me until it's too late and I've overcome it after wasting two weeks banging my head against the laptop. But when I recognise writer's block, I've taken to leaping onto the Playstation. One afternoon of video games tends to fix it. Two at most. And far better that than two weeks of pointless struggle.
If you're worried about keeping new year's resolutions, check out my earlier post:
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