2010: 6 changes.

So. It’s that time again. The resolutions time. I waffle a lot on doing this, some years yes, some years no, and I have the same rough success with resolutions everyone else has, which is not much…starting off strong and petering off, or just trying to do too much in one fell swoop or being totally vague and setting oneself up for failure and so on.

But this year. I have A PLAN. It’s not my plan, it’s the zen habits guy’s plan. It’s called 6 changes. On the theory that it takes roughly two months to build a habit, you take a habit you want to develop, work on it methodically for two months, then go to the next one.

Everyone loves a list, so here’s Anna’s 6 changes for 2010:

• Walk Sergei five times a week for 20 minutes. When in KC, just walk for 20 minutes. Sadly, Sergei cannot come with me to KC.
• Meditate for five minutes a day, weekdays. Maybe every day?
• Unclutter ten things every single day. When in KC, this uncluttering can be computer related, since I won’t be with my stuff.
• Write fiction in some consistent way I haven’t decided on yet. What? I’ve got a couple of months to nail this down, it won’t be the first habit!
• Do regular yoga, which includes a challenge pose (headstands/handstands, danurasana, whatever. Interval yet to be decided. Also not first on the list!
• Something I haven’t decided on yet. My priorities point to something in either the area of my Montessori training, my family, or daily reading. But in the first two categories not sure what I need to be doing daily, and in the third, I think I got it covered, since I already do this daily. So. Bears some thinking about. But I have time, which is the beauty of this method!

Hey Anna, you’re saying, I notice blogging is not one of your habits. Ah, so astute. I can never get one past you, can I? Yeah, you’re right. It’s not, and I’ve started with a mad dash out the gate that I can’t possibly sustain over the rest of the year. I realize that. But here’s the true fact: blogging is not a current priority for me. I like doing it, and with my new shiny website, I want to do it. But I’m not resolving to. Not this year. However, if I play 6 changes right, then I have to do the pubic accountability thing. This is where I do the public accountability thing, so…see what I did there? Built-in blogging. It might not be riveting blogging, but then I never promised riveting, did I?

So ok, the six changes method works as follows. You take the first habit on the list. You announce that you’re doing it. I hereby publicly declare that I want to walk Sergei every week day. Then, you set a trigger. Something that happens every day or a habit you already have to piggyback the new habit on to. So I will come home every weekday, and coming home will be the trigger to walk Sergei. But at this point, it diverges from a normal resolution. Because I don’t come home tomorrow and walk Sergei for twenty minutes. No. I start with something way easier. Like I might just say “Oh, this is when I walk Sergei,” and take his leash down from the hook and then hang it up again. Something I totally couldn’t fail at. However, because it’s cruel to handle the leash and not put it on Sergei, I’m going to have to step up my game a little from what is recommended. So, for this week, “walking Sergei” will consist of putting on the leash and taking him outside. That’s it. Not actually walking him. That comes in week two. In week two, I will walk him for five minutes, tacking on five minutes every week until I hit 20 minutes, which will be by week 5 (not week six, but it’s close enough!). Anyway, I’m supposed to tell you every day whether I walked him or not, so you have that excitement to look forward to.

And that’s what I’m resolving.