319. 10 Things (Part 1)

I’m not too big on the tradition holiday card format. Maybe my life isn’t exciting enough. So, I’m going to try something a little bit different. Despite its crap, 2016 was a year of some growth for me. I’m going to try and distill what I learned into a few bullet points.

I think this is going to be my holiday card for the year. However, since I have so many (self-inflicted) content obligations, i’m going to have to recycle a few of them. I’m totally ok with that. While the typical rehash of the year works for so many people, it’s a little weird for me. Maybe it’s because I like to write, or that I don’t do enough exciting things. I like a lot of self-reflection.

1. Boring is good. This is the first year in quite a while where I haven’t moved residences or changed jobs. It’s the first year I’ve felt settled somewhere. I have a good job that I enjoy. I have a home that I make mortgage payments on. I’m glad I can rest those parts of my brain and not worry about them. I know that 15-year old me would question my sanity, but a sense of normalcy and routine is extremely underrated. Why didn’t the adults in my life tell me about this before?
2. Healthy is good. I’m on the cusp of finishing one of my 2015 new year’s goals: running 500 miles over the course of the year. I’ve run a lot for exercise, but I’ve rarely tracked it or tried to improve my times. I did a couple of 5ks and a 10k. It felt good to train and achieve those goals. I’ve also been doing yoga and going for a lot of walks. I really value my ability to be active.
3. It’s good to find the thing you love. I’ve always wondered when I’m going to get “my thing.” That hobby or activity that I can turn to. I realized that I’ve had those things for a long time: writing and running. I know that I’m not Shakespeare or Prefontaine, but I try hard at both of those things and get immense personal satisfaction from both of them. It was liberating to put a lot of myself into both of those things.
4. Rethinking social media is a good thing. I gave up on social media at different times throughout the year. That was one of the better ideas I had. There’s too much toxicity on it. I haven’t quit it entirely though, but I’ve been more mindful on digging the nuggets of joy from it.
5. Music is fun. For some reason, I went to more concerts this year than any other time in my life. Live music is so much fun. The two best concerts I saw were Wilco, which I went to by myself, and Weezer, which I saw with my brother. It’s good to just put your phone away for a while and enjoy an experience that is outside of your normal day-to-day experiences.