2014: The Good Parts Version

A couple of years ago I gave up resolutions in favor of plans. Last year, I gave up plans because the Universe kept hitting me with a bus over and over again, and I downgraded to “Just get through this day without screaming.” It worked pretty well; 2013 was better than 2012, although that’s like saying, “Being poked in the eye with a sharp stick is better than being stabbed in the heart with a dull spoon.” It was much better, but it was not great. HOWEVER, I have decided that I’m carrying all the good times from 2013 into 2014 with me and leaving the bad stuff behind, so 2014 is going to be FABULOUS. And then I realized that I’d made the same decision before, only about writing. That is, while I was struggling with writing the boring parts of a novel, parts I felt I had to write, I had this epiphany that if I just wrote the good parts, the whole book would be good. It worked, too. So 2014 is going to be my Good Parts year. I’m taking all the stuff I love–my friends, my family, my house, my dogs, writing, gardening, cooking, baking, crochet–and leaving behind all the things that made 2013 dark–money worries (just keep working and it’ll all work out), health worries (Obamacare, thank you, Obama), overwork (don’t try to cram forty hours of work into a twenty-four hour day), guilt (if it happened more than a week ago, I’m letting it go), and stress (much of which I create myself). From now on, my life is the Good Parts Version, or at least the part of it I control will be. If the Universe backs up the bus again, I’ll be ready.

So what’s in your Good Parts Plan for 2014? Don’t say “lose weight.” Say stuff you’ll have fun doing. Life is depressing enough without adding to its baggage. Plan for happiness, that’s what I say.