NEW CASTLE —
What gets you excited about life?
It's a new year, and time once again to make those resolutions. I've been making and breaking promises to myself for as long as I can remember. Sure, I've had some successes along the way, but obviously I'm not exactly where I want to be, or this year's resolution would be "keep everything the same!"
Aw, HECK no!
But I really, truly, in my heart of hearts, want this year to be different. I NEED it to be different. I just turned 40 (as you all heard me lament over and over again last month) and that internal clock is just relentless in its mantra of "you're running out of time ... you're running out of time."
So I thought I'd try a different approach this year, instead of just writing out the goals I want to accomplish: lose weight, make more friends, blah blah blah. I thought I would first examine WHY I choose the goals I do in the first place. Of course, it all came back to a simple question:
What gets me excited about life?
It's the mind-numbing mundaneness of life that kills me. Eat, sleep, work. Rinse and repeat. Blah. So in order to set my goals, I had to figure out what makes life worth living for me — in other words, what gets me excited? I already know that I love a good book or a good movie, love time with the kids, and have an unnatural obsession with Pinterest. I have all those things. It's the things I'm missing that I need to concentrate on.
And so I narrowed it down to the three most missed things (I'm sure there's more, but these are at the top of the list, and I want to have manageable goals):
1. I want to give more by helping others. I've always been very selfish of my time and resources, even though I've found that I'm happiest when I'm making someone else happy or making their life easier in some way.
2. I want to do more ... of everything. I want to move my body more and exercise my brain more and just participate in life more.
3. I want to love more. I've had my heart squashed a couple of times over the last few years, and it's pretty tempting to stay safely behind the walls I've constructed for myself. These days, bitterness comes more easily to me than love, but I'm bound and determined to figure out which people in this world are deserving of my love, and to give it to them freely and without the mistrust and sadness that hovers around me now.
So pretty simply, I've narrowed it down to this: Give more, do more, love more.
If I can pull off even one of those things in 2013, it will be a year well spent.
Wish me luck!
Lisa Madras
Related Photos
-
-
About Lisa Madras: Lisa is the advertising dispatch at The News. She has agreed to blog about her personal pain in an effort to inspire others going through similar circumstances. She’ll share her thoughts each Monday.
Discussion
Lisa Madras: As a new year dawns, I’ll pursue what excites me
- Lisa Madras
-
-
Lisa Madras: It wasn’t Nirvana, but it certainly was better
When you look into the past, what do you miss the most? For a bunch of my co-workers, who are still floating around on cloud nine from last week's concert, the answer would probably be New Kids on the Block.
-
Lisa Madras: Despite emotional moments, I’m a Big Apple believer to the core
What is your favorite place on Earth? I have an embarrassing secret to share with you. Two weekends ago, I took a bus trip with some of the Jameson Hospital staff to New York City. When we came through the tunnel and saw the city sprawling out before us, I burst into tears.
-
Lisa Madras: You’re weird? Join the club — that is, if they’ll have you
What makes you weird? For me, this is an easy one: pretty much everything. The great thing is that I don't consider "weird" a dirty word. The even better thing is that the people who love me, love me because of it, not in spite of it.
-
Lisa Madras: Surgery delay yet another storm I must weather
What makes you angry? I'm so glad that I had this question in my arsenal, because I wasn't really sure how I was going to manage to choke out a blog this week. I told my editor as much, and he said, "Well, write angry then."
-
Lisa Madras: I’ve still got plenty of questions, but now I have family to help answer them
What’s something new you’ve recently learned about yourself? Oh, happy day. I've been waiting my whole life to have a great answer to this question, and now that I finally do. I can hardly believe it myself.
-
Lisa Madras: I’m kickin’ it old school — and trying to get a leg up
What lessons did you NOT learn in the classroom? Several weeks ago, I found myself stumbling around outside of my comfort zone. I'd gone to a college campus to begin working on a new degree and new direction for my life. And boy did I feel like a square peg.
-
Lisa Madras: Don’t like me? Don’t need you around, either
What have you lost interest in recently? It seems as if I lose interest in more and more things as I get older. It might seem a frightening thought at first, but really, how many trivial pursuits do we cling to that we eventually just outgrow?
-
Lisa Madras: Don’t waste your life — it’s a precious gift that’s far too short
When did you first realize that life is short? I'm sure I don't need to remind you of last week's tragedy at the Boston Marathon. The images of that horrific event have taken their place in our souls right next to those of 9/11, the Sandy Hook shooting and every other devastating event in recent history.
-
Lisa Madras: Longing for a do-over? Like scissors, it’s in your hands
If you could do it all over again, would you change anything? My kids ask me all the time if I like being a grown-up. I tell them that it has its upsides and downsides, but always think to myself, "My gosh, what I wouldn't give to be a kid again and start all over."
-
Lisa Madras: Want a brighter future? Stop living in the past
If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be? I've hemmed and hawed over this question about a gazillion times, always pushing it to the bottom of my list because I could never settle on one definitive answer.
- More Lisa Madras Headlines
-
