New Year, New Me?

I'm sitting here with the last of my chocolate coins after finishing off last night's penne a la vodka (my own special recipe full of single cream and butter), before which I downed a large quantity of cheese with the Irishman to rid our larders of everything indulgent we allowed ourselves to purchase over the last six weeks. It is three days into 2010 and it's nearly time to start on those resolutions. So what will I resolve to do this year? Well, the wish I wrote on the lantern we sent flying at midnight on New Year's Eve was to find greater fulfillment in my life overall. I think that will be my overall goal, and I have little things in mind to help me get there.

Firstly, running. I'm getting back together with my old fling Hal Higdon to train for a half marathon. If any of you readers are aspiring runners like me, Hal is the man for a thorough, complete, and not-too-scary running training program. I've been with him before and left him for the comfort of my sofa, but this time I'm determined to really commit to him. The race I've got in mind to complete takes place the first May Bank Holiday weekend, which gives me four months to train. Easy peasy. The race sounds rad - it's called the Neolithic Marathon, and route takes you from an ancient stone circle called Avebury and ends at Stonehenge. I'll only do half, starting in the middle and ending at Stonehenge, but if I'm going to run 13 miles it might as well be with the goal of ending at something as awe-inspiring as Druid ruins.

Obviously one of the benefits of running is to look better in all of the clothes I bought when I went to the US, but a large part of running for me is to take control of my life. For a lot of 2009 I felt like other people were controlling me, who I was, what I was doing, and where I was going in my life, my career, and my overall being. I realized not too long ago that when I run, even if it is only 2 miles, I feel like I am more in charge, more balanced, and calmer than if I don't. So yes, I definitely want to shed the festive fat, but I also want to direct myself and my existence in a more positive manner.

In addition to running, I am making writing one of my goals as well. That includes this here blog, which I know I'm not 100% amazing at updating, and so I'm rededicating myself to it with a few links to other blogs I enjoy and with the goal of expanding readership. The Irishman and I let our food blog Eggplant & Aubergine die a slow and painful death, and I don't want that to happen here. Plus I have a few ideas up my sleeve for making writing more of a permanent fixture in my life fullstop, and writing here helps me focus my thoughts and provides me with a good exercise for improving skills. Kind of like my running. Ugh.

Finally, in a zen and feng shui kind of way, I'm really going to try in 2010 to stop comparing myself to everyone else. I'm at that point in my life where a lot of my friends are getting big promotions, buying houses, settling down - I've never knit so many baby gifts before in my entire life - and it is so easy for me to sit on the couch and whinge about why I'm not where they are (as I sit and type this at the shared computer in my shared house, owned by roommates younger than myself, gaaaaah). But I've also done a fair bit of awesomeness in my own time and I know that it's only up to me to achieve my goals. Sometimes the hardest bit is figuring out what those goals are; simply saying "I want to make more money" isn't exactly focussed or actionable. So I'm going to spend the majority of this year figuring out exactly what it is I want in this crazy world, and then set myself up for getting it. I have a feeling that it's probably completely different from what I thought I wanted when I first moved to England, but isn't that sort of the point? I certainly hope so, or else I'm in for a really big shock.

Good luck with all of your resolutions, friends, as I'm sure you all have them. Don't forget - the only person that matters in this whole silly ritual is you.