At the beginning of 2018, I didn’t set a New Year’s resolution. Instead, I picked a theme for 2018. My theme for 2018 was Friendship.
I didn’t want to make a resolution, because New Year’s resolutions are famous for not getting kept. And I didn’t feel the need to be heroic, or to prove to myself that I’m the kind of guy who can keep a New Year’s resolution when everyone else lets it slide by the wayside.
But I wanted something that would mark the beginning of a new year – something that could help me feel like 2018 would be different from 2017 in some significant way. Something to serve as a guide and a reminder.
So I picked a theme: something that I could think about every so often and try to bring more of into my life.
For 2018, the theme I picked was Friendship.
Why friendship?
I value friendship. I want more of it in my life. I don’t want other things that I also value (doing good work, relaxing at home, spending time solo) to crowd it out.
I also want to see how those other things have friendship mixed in: cultivating collegiality among co-workers, spending the time I need to spend with my children in order to have friendships with them, turning my time by myself into time spent in friendly conversation with the divine (i.e., prayer).
Am I glad I picked a theme for 2018? Yes. The theme influenced my thinking, my feeling, and my decisions throughout the year, often in subtle ways.
And now with 2019 a day away, I’ve got a new theme: hope.
If you’re reluctant to make a resolution, then why not try picking a theme for the new year in front of you?