365 True Things: 277/Resolutions

Art from First Night Monterey
a few years ago

I'm not really a New Year's resolutions maker. I know myself too well by now to be fooled by such naive hopefulness. But my writing buddy Sherilyn gave me a fancy schmancy datebook/planner (it's called the Spark Planner), and right there in the first few pages you are asked to come up with a theme for 2016.

So maybe this year, instead of "resolutions," I'll think a little more about the Big Picture and what I want my life to be like this next year.

I've already written down a few possible themes, including creativity, stretching, and rootedness. Tomorrow, I'll try to muse a bit more on the idea and maybe narrow down to one idea that I'd like to keep in mind this next year. Pay attention has been a (constant) past theme: perhaps I'll just pick that one up again. It's not a bad one.

But for today's post, I'm going to blatantly steal someone else's New Year's words and wishes—because I think it's a great wish, and it is something I'd like to challenge myself more toward. So, here for your (and my) inspiration is Neil Gaiman's wish for everyone as 2011 turned to 2012:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's every made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

And then there's also this, from last year, which is equally wise and worth striving for:

Try to make your time matter: minutes and hours and days and weeks can blow away like dead leaves, with nothing to show but time you spent not quite ever doing things, or time you spent waiting to begin.

Meet new people and talk to them. Make new things and show them to people who might enjoy them.

Hug too much. Smile too much. And, when you can, love.

Words to live by, Neil. Thank you. And . . . to anyone reading this, my very best wishes for an inspiring 2016 full of life, love, and energy! And maybe an instructive mistake or two.