Goodbye 2018

2018 was a dumpster fire of a year for a lot of people, myself included. I lost too many good people and, overall, received too much bad news. So I’m picking up the “New Year, New Me” torch with a vengeance, and I hope you’ll join me. But, before I start talking to you about all the things I plan to do in 2019 — I refuse to call them resolutions, if you’re wondering, but more on that later — I want to share photographs of our completed 2018 Geek-A-Long blanket with you. The GAL has always been my light in the darkness, so I hope you don’t mind me spamming you with pictures of the assembled 2018 GAL blanket while I talk about how we shouldn’t call positive changes in our lives resolutions.

RESOLUTIONS AREN’T REALISTIC

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is only cool if you’re a scientist. For everyone else, lets talk about why most resolutions fail. It usually starts with a pen, a pad of paper, and a long list of of life-altering resolutions… and it ends with crushing disappointment. The problem is that we usually set too many unrealistic goals and our expectations soar, which makes us crash even harder when we fail to achieve them.

Real change takes time, effort, and patience. For instance, we can’t just write “become a better knitter” on our lists and never work out the realistic steps to achieving that goal. What does being a “better knitter” mean to you? Does it mean knitting faster? Does it mean being able to effectively use more techniques? Which techniques? What do you need to do so that one year from now you can look back and say, “Yes. I became a better knitter in 2019.”

The key is to be specific about your goals, how you’ll achieve them, and not set yourself up for failure. Whether you want to expand your knitting prowess, learn a new language, or quit a bad habit, remember that it takes most people a minimum of 66 days (according to studies like this one) to completely break an old habit, and it can take even longer to master something new. So, give yourself some slack. If you have grand life-changing goals for 2019, try to only focus on one of them at a time. Then, once you’ve got the swing of it, begin working on another one.

Celebrate every accomplishment and positive change.

NEW YEAR, NEW ME

In summation, resolutions are garbage and we should all agree to leave the garbage in 2018 where it belongs. Instead, let’s start making small changes in our habits to achieve our larger goals.

One of my goals for 2019 is to improve my Spanish. My husband and I are due for another trip to Puerto Rico soon to visit his family, and I’d like to be able to hold a conversation with his grandmother. I tried out a slew of apps on my phone to decide which one would work the best for me. (I ended up going with Duolingo.) Now that I’ve found the one I like, I’m trying to make practicing/learning Spanish part of my nightly getting-ready-for-bed routine. I’m doing pretty well so far. My husband and I have already become very competitive over our Duolingo stats since we started 12 days ago. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re both gamers or are just naturally competitive, but we haven’t needed the judgey green owl to remind us to practice yet.

Other new habits I’m working on forming include: making the time to write that novel I’ve had on the back-burner for ages and knitting on the train instead of playing pointless games on my phone. I used to really enjoy my train knitting time, but I’ve fallen on bad habits that need breaking.

What sort of new habits will you try to develop in 2019?

~ Jac

We’ve also devolved into looking up new words and phrases with Google Translate in order to properly insult each other in Spanish. The current favorite that we like to toss at each other is: “Eres un trasero.”

It’s all very dignified and mature.