New Year's Resolutions 2012

Look at me, all writing down my resolutions before January even begins. I'm so on top of things.

Actually, my friend Amy asked the general public what their resolutions were for 2012 and it got me thinking about goals I could set. And then it got me thinking about whether I even want to set any goals. I kind of do and I kind of don't.

In 2012, I want to:

• Survive Andrew's last semester at BYU
• Survive the 2.5 weeks he'll be in Ghana
• Survive having a baby & juggling three children
• Survive moving wherever we'll be moving
• Survive settling in and starting a new job and/or Phd program

Beyond that, I think setting any other goals is a bit too lofty of me. 

I have already entered survival mode. I therefore think that I am exempt from making any actual resolutions for the coming new year. 

There's this thing called the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, which any student of psychology or behavioral science or related fields should recognize—you can find multiple online tests or just calculate your score from the list on Wikipedia. When I fill out this test, looking at December 2011–December 2012, I score well over 300 points, which is the threshold for being "at risk for illness."

It's not that I'm planning on being stressed out in 2012. It's just that I'm planning on having a lot of stressful events occur in my life in 2012. And that's okay; I just don't want to add to the stress by forcing myself to learn how to sew or by making myself feel guilty if I don't clean the bathrooms every other day or anything like that. 

So, no marathon this year. No writing goals or reading goals. No cooking goals or cleaning goals.

Just survival goals. 

I might be being too easy on myself but sometimes easy is good.