Intro:
The New Year had me thinking a lot about goals, values, ambitions, motivations, life, and how excited I was to wear my new fuzzy socks. With all the talk of “look how far you’ve come in a year” and “can you believe that was only 1 year ago” I found myself even more reflective and nearly bubbling over with blog ideas – two of which involved writing about goals and values.
At my old job, we had a list of working norms – kind of like guiding values – and each day at our morning huddle, we would say what working norm we were focusing on that day. I loved that idea. I mean, obviously, in theory, you were living into every positive attribute every day you walked into the office, but how nice it was to really put your heart and soul behind one guiding value each week.
For this reason, I’ve decided to dedicate a new series of “Res” posts to my own kind of working norms – my own mini-resolutions. You don’t have to buy into any of these. You don’t have to make your own. But maybe at some point, it’ll make you think about what it would look like to radically change your life one week at a time.
Res 46: Opt Outside
I love a good deal. I love saving money and hunting for coupon codes. I love treating my loved ones to something special, just because. But I also have a strong distaste for the rampart consumerism that surrounds the time between Thanksgiving and the holidays – specifically the Black Friday situation.
When I was younger, I read an article about how the Friday after Thanksgiving is “Buy Nothing Day” and was supposed to be used as a day to celebrate all the wonderful things we just gave thanks for. Then someone told me about Black Friday and I realized that “Buy Nothing Day” isn’t actually a thing.
And I’m not asking it to be. Instead, I’m asking for this: at some point in this hectic holiday season, spend some time outside. Take yourself away from crowded shopping centers and frantic cookie baking and connect with nature. This time of year – now more than most other times – can be stressful and overwhelming for a multitude of reasons and I find in moments of total exhaustion, the most refreshing thing can be a walk around the park.
Resolution #46: Opt Outside
I’ll keep this short and sweet and end with this quote from Charles Lindbergh, the man who made the first solo transatlantic flight and may know a thing or two about planes:
“If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.”
Love always,
Liz
