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Resolution

Strange Planet comic about debasing oneself in December to maximize contrast with post-resolution self in January
In an attempt to end the year on a good note, I opted to do both a December daily run streak and Dry December. This is backwards. I should not be doing the healthy things right before resolution time, because then how will I become The New Me in the new year? On the other hand, I have a pretty lofty walk/run mileage goal for 2021, so I can’t really let up just because the calendar changes. And I don’t really enjoy drinking alone, except maybe a porch beer on a warm evening, and since socializing and warm evenings aren’t happening any time soon, it’ll probably be a mostly Dry January anyway.

My resolution for 2020 was to eliminate negative self talk. That’s virtually impossible to track or quantify, so I have no idea if I succeeded. Let’s say yes. The fact that I remember my resolution 364 days later is a feat, really. Other than the aforementioned mileage goal, I don’t really have a resolution for 2021. However, I’ll be turning 40 next year, and I have some Feelings about that. 

Screenshot of a tweet by Jim Belushi: "Unbelievably, I still feel like someday I'll be able to dunk. Same as when I was a kid."

Okay, so that’s some relatable content(?) from Jim Belushi(?!) Turning 40 is sort of meaningless. I’ve been thinking of my age as 40ish for a couple of years now and I’ll just keep doing that for the next 5-7. But biology is real, and our bodies and brains aren’t meant to last forever. I know 40 isn’t OLD, but by this age everything is on the decline. If you want to get faster or stronger or smarter in middle age, it takes more effort for less reward than it used to. You don’t get a letter in the mail telling you that this is happening. It’s more like, eventually you stop noticing that you woke up feeling stiff this morning, because you’ve woken up feeling stiff every morning for the past 12 years and now it’s just existence.

WRT to Jim Belushi’s Tweet: I never learned how to do a cartwheel as a kid. I tried, but I never even got close. I think in the back of my mind I always just assumed that one day I would succeed at it. That thought went dormant at some point but never disappeared, even long after I stopped trying to do cartwheels or thinking about them, and after the likelihood of my doing any gymnastics without injury diminished due to my literally never doing anything even remotely gymnastics-related at all. Jim Belushi is never going to dunk, and it is increasingly unlikely that I am ever going to do a cartwheel.

I guess the point is that over the years I have thought that maybe I would one day run a Boston qualifier or or get abs or become fluent in a foreign language and these things aren’t technically impossible yet, but time is not on my side.

Ages ending in zero aren’t really any more meaningful than the calendar flipping to January 1. So you can ignore them, or you can ascribe meaning to them because maybe that’s the motivation you need to set a goal and make a plan, because otherwise everything is just like learning how to do a cartwheel, or not.

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