Well, I’m finally ready to come up with my New Year’s Resolution. I’m grumpy so far this year… it’s been hard to come up with something. But I feel that these two things are going to be really good for me.
1. Don’t eat breakfast and lunch at my desk anymore.
Since I telecommute, I have developed the bad habit of getting up around 5:30 each morning, grabbing my breakfast and taking it into my office. I don’t have to start working until 7:00 AM… but there I am, no later than 6 most days eating oatmeal or cereal at the keyboard.
And then come lunch time, I would put together my food and haul that right back in to my desk.
So I stretched an 8 hour work day into about 10… and if I’m going to do that, I should have just dropped a day I worked each week, huh? 😉
Last week I decided to stop this. And I find I’m more productive and I enter my work day less frazzled when I take the time to eat at the kitchen table. I can read blogs on my iPad or browse Facebook if I want. I can even take the time to put a little salt on my hardboiled egg (because who wants to dump salt over an egg when they’re holding it at the keyboard? I don’t need salt in my keyboard!)
This needs to continue… so no more meals at my desk unless there are extenuating circumstances that require it. And breakfast shouldn’t ever be required there.
2. Pick a word for the year: Acceptance
Honestly, it pisses me off to no end when things aren’t going “to plan” – whatever my plan may be. I want to plan every second of my life and I want to know how it’s all going to turn out, when it’s going to happen and I want to know all of this for the next year, 5 years, 10 years, etc.
But I guess that’s not how life works. There are other people in my life and they all have their own intentions/goals/paths. Shit happens… you gotta deal with it.
That’s where ACCEPTANCE is going to come in. My first reaction was to be far more negative and just say “Give up” – meaning face it, you have no control over what happens in your life Jill. Pretty negative approach.
I mean, I do have a little bit of control over things. And what I can’t control, I need to learn to accept that’s how life goes and not let it get to me.
And this one is really hard for me!
Jill Will Run 
I absolutely LOVE that you waited until you were ready to make your resolutions!
The Serenity Prayer can be the perfect mantra to help you get through challenging situations. There have been days that I have chanted it under my breath repeatedly, dozens of times, to remind myself that I can’t control the people around me, I can only control my response to the situation. And while it doesn’t make me instantly feel warm and fuzzy inside, it does force me to calm down and try to change my perspective. Funny-ish story: My work environment is sometimes very loud (I’m an engineer in a manufacturing plant), and I remember shouting the Serenity prayer (to myself)…and singing it in a made-up tune…(no one could hear me over the din of the machinery)–it was a nice release 🙂 Hang in there, Jill!