I used to make New Year’s resolutions that were pretty typical. Lose weight, show up to places on time and be a nicer person. Stuff like that. And like most typical resolutions, I lost steam around February. Two years ago, I made the best New Year’s resolution I’ve ever made – to do something out of my comfort zone each month. As an uncoordinated introvert, thankfully that includes a lot of territory. I didn’t even come close to doing something each month, but I did manage to do 12 things that were pretty terrifying for me. I sang karoke for the first time, I went on a blind date, I ran the Wash Park Turkey Trot, I took a belly dancing class, I went to a movie by myself, I showed up at a Yelp! event where I knew no one, I signed up for fitness bootcamp, I went and ate at a restaurant by myself and some other things I can’t remember now. And for the finale, I went to New York by myself in December. I booked the trip on a Wednesday and left on a Friday. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. Doing all of those activities alone was great preparation for taking a trip. I went to restaurants by myself, I went to the opera by myself and I managed to navigate around a city and not get lost or mugged. By myself.
I’d like to have another year like 2007, so I’ve made the same New Year’s Resolution this year. To do something that scares the hell out of me each month (or at least 12 things by the end of the year). Unfortunately to my discredit, I have a lot of left over New Year’s Resolutions from last year. So to throw it in the mix, I’d also like to achieve the following: visit 12 more breweries, visit a new mountain town like Crested Butte, learn to parallel park, take a roadtrip by myself, learn to sew, run the Boulder Bolder, buy somewhere to live, go to SXSW, go to Europe, read 25 of the Pulitizer Prize fiction novels, take more cooking classes and go to the Santa Fe Opera. Oh and maybe back to New York. I don’t have to accomplish everything on that list, but I’d like to review this blog post in December and feel like I’ve accomplished something. That I can look back and not feel like I wasted an entire year like I did with 2008.
