New Year’s Resolutions 2022

It has felt impossible to set or achieve goals the past two years. Only in the past couple of months have I felt remotely like the person I was prepandemic, and I’ve decided to celebrate with something I did every year in the Before Times: setting New Year’s Resolutions. Some of these I’ve adapted from my last list in 2020, as Pandi interfered with my ability to achieve them.

1. Do one new thing every day

I’ve decided to bring back my Year of New project for 2022. I’ll do one new thing every day of the year, starting with the NYRR Midnight Run on January 1. Some of these are big things that require planning; others will be small things like ordering a different sandwich at a place I’ve been a million times. I have a repository of ideas I didn’t use in years past, but I’m also open to suggestions!

2. Complete 9+1 to qualify for the 2023 NYC Marathon

I was supposed to run this year’s NYC Marathon but had to halt training seven weeks in as I couldn’t breathe outside. I’m hoping to use the coming year not only to qualify for the 2023 race, but to get back in the habit of running regularly. One of the side effects of having all in-person races cancelled in 2020 and part of 2021 was that my body lost the rhythm of waking up on the weekend to run. I’m hoping to recover that–and qualify for the following year’s Marathon.

3. Publish 12 podcast episodes

I have not recorded a podcast episode in over a year. My plan for a return to podcasting is to make it as simple as possible. I’m not going to be doing interviews; instead, I’ll focus on shorter episodes with tips for getting creative projects done, as well as an audio journal of sorts about what I’ve been doing.

4. Publish 20 blog posts

Again, something I haven’t done much of the past couple of years, though I’ve been trying to get back in the habit lately. I’d like to write more than this but I’m trying to set a cadence that is a stretch compared to what I’ve been doing but not out of reach as I relearn how to use this muscle.

5. Live as my alter ego

I’m stealing this verbatim from my 2020 Resolutions as I didn’t really get to do them, and I’m going to be navigating some challenges in early 2022 that I feel she will handle with aplomb.

My alter ego, Élodie Clyde, is American but with the energy of the French Olympic logo:

The French Olympic logo tumbles out of bed on a Parisian morning. She tousles her messy bob, dons breton stripes and ballet flats and whisks down the stairs from her fifth-floor apartment to grab a baguette before enigmatically texting two men who are pursuing her romantically. pic.twitter.com/5R2PVaXaa6

— Megan Clement (@MegClement) October 21, 2019

As I wrote in an Instagram post:

I went to an event a few weeks ago where we created alter egos and then went out to a bar in character as them. Since that night I’ve spent so much time thinking about mine. How differently she would navigate relationships, creative practices, finances, her social life. How much less she’d care about what other people think, how she’d never take responsibility for anyone else’s feelings, how much cleaner her apartment would be, how much more comfortable she’d be with other things being messy. The books she’d read, the movies she’d watch, the eyeliner she’d wear. Her insouciance, her last-minute trips abroad, her hours-long dinner parties. A bigger life, but never suffocating.

This is what I’m using to guide my decisions in 2022.

Even though I haven’t accomplished much beyond survival in the past two years (which, let me be clear, is FINE), this list feels short to me. I can tell I’m doing better because my desire to Do All the Things is back in full force, but I think I’ll target it toward a few things, and maybe doing more of those if I find I do indeed have the time and energy.

Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash