editor note

At the turn of the year I read an article about New Year’s resolutions. Now, before you roll eyes and say, “Who hasn’t?”, let me note that this wasn’t your typical resolution story. Titled “When ‘Drop It’ Is the Best New Year’s Resolution,” The Wall Street Journal article shares four “antiresolutions” that people should try in order to alleviate stress and improve focus on what is important. The four suggestions were stop worrying about being a night owl, stop weighing yourself, stop worrying that you don’t have enough friends and stop wasting money on fitness.

Without going in-depth into the article, the gist is that by stopping those four common resolutions before you start, you’ll have a healthier life outlook and won’t set yourself up for disappointment later in the year. After all, research has shown nearly 66 percent of people who set New Year’s resolutions give up on them by the end of January. Ouch!

We have a tradition in our household where we pick a word to guide us through the year rather than a specific set of resolutions. Balance, faith, health, we find these words help us focus on what is most important without setting specific, pressure-filled goals that

by Greg Girard

can set us up for failure before we even begin.

It was this antiresolution article that got me thinking about our incessant drive to achieve and be relevant no matter the cost. Always being busy—seizing each day, every day—has become a badge of honor that some people are all too happy to share. We’ve all encountered that person who says, “I’m just so busy. I just don’t have time,” in order to inflate their importance. My typical internal response is I can think of only one person who’s allowed to say that and it ain’t you.

Socrates said, “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” What are we truly achieving by running from one task to the next? When we sit down at the end of the day are we more often satisfied with how much we did or are we already stressing about how much more we have to do tomorrow?

Overachieving is for the birds. So, this year I’ve chosen boundaries as my word for 2023. I’m not going to seize every day. I’m going to say no a little more often. Not so I can rush to do something else, but rather to do nothing at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to download the hottest meditation app or go forest bathing each day on my downtime. I’m not going to schedule anything at all. And I think the simple knowledge that I have nothing to run to is enough to decompress and let the hour or day take me wherever it leads. That’s living.