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namenotrequired — For a better 2018, part 3
Published: 2017-12-30 21:53:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 1176; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 0
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Step 1 was deciding to better myself .
Step 2 was choosing five things I know I could do better . I have more, but five seems a good number to get started. And these five should lay a good basis for whatever may be next.
Step 3 is imagining. To be properly motivated to improve myself, it's important to realize well why I'm doing it - who I could be if I work on it, and who if I don't.
What if I don't?
If I don't improve on any of these dimensions, next year I'll be a year older and none the wiser. I'll still be wishing to improve on these things. I may have realized even more things I need to do better. I'll be further behind, and further from the person I wish to be. I'll feel bad about it, guilty, because I know that I am not living up to my potential and setting a bad example to everyone I know. Feeling bad may just make it even harder to break the cycle and do something.
I will still be overeating from time to time and not sleeping enough all the time. This will take a larger toll on my health as time goes on, both because I am getting older and because the harms accumulate. Too little sleep and too much food disrupts my routine, which disturbs my cardiac rhythms, which worsens my mood and mental and physical health. And I will know it is my own fault. I'll often be annoyed and unreasonable, and treat Ellen and friends and family and colleagues and strangers worse than they deserve. I'll get ill more than necessary and age faster and I'll be unhappy and may take even worse care of myself in a vicious spiral.
Any unexpected events like getting ill or unemployed or accidents to me or loved ones will disrupt my routine even more and the positive direction in my life would just get harder and harder to pick up.
If I don't work on social skills and courage, I'll be more prone to loneliness. I'll lose friends and not be able to make amends or new friends. My career won't progress, and I'll keep feeling inferior and guilty for wasting all the time and advantages I have and not manning up. Situations will come where I'll have to step up to help or save someone, maybe myself, and I won't.
My conscience may turn quieter as I keep ignoring it. It may hide itself in nightmares.
Okay, that's quite a doom scenario 
What if I do?
If I do improve my habits and learn, here's a few things that may happen.
I'll be eating and sleeping more healthily. I'll feel better, I'll feel bad less, and I can rely better on my own plans (there'll be less e.g. "I was going to do X but I'm so tired"). Others can rely on me even better too.
If I learn to take my initiative-taking skills from work to my personal life, my friendships and relationships will improve. I'll have people to rely on. People to learn from, to have all kinds of fun with, to cooperate and compete with. When I experience malevolence, there's a chance I'll be able to stand up against it. That can be dangerous, but whatever happens would at least be the consequence of doing the right thing.
Better social skills will also make it easier to follow my conscience in social situations. Now I am often too busy paying attention to others or myself or how they perceive me to also pay attention to my conscience.
As I learn to follow my conscience more, I'll notice more things to improve and it'll be easier to improve them. My decisions in general will be better. I will save more money, treat others better, listen to people who know better than me and learn from them. I will become a more well-rounded person as my conscience likes pointing out flaws and opportunities to overcome them.
These will all help improve my happiness and health and confidence and competence. It'll be a better basis for working on things I want to achieve. Maybe I'll even be able to decide better which of those things are worth achieving. That'd be good.
How's that?
It all seems to be a bit too black and white, maybe. Of course the reality will be somewhere in between. And of course some advantages will have disadvantages and vice versa. But this seems a decent first draft. I'll get on the way, and as I get closer, I'll get better at knowing where to aim.
Thanks for reading this far 
Tomorrow, the last day of the year, I'll start working out how to improve these things.
Part 2 | Final part
Skin by Dan Leveille
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Comments: 6
I think this kind of emphasizes the need for action. It's good to think ahead, but it can be pointless without actually doing something.
That said, it's also good to think these things through, to extrapolate and think it through enough that you come to a conclusion of what things could be if something did or didn't happen.
By doing what you've done here, you have a better comparison between the two. By 'better', I simply mean that you've written it down, and so it has become more 'tangible'.
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I to have noticed I have let things get the better of me. Social anxiety for one, so now I have joined a social group that meets once a month (baby steps!) and plan on reading at least one book every month. This last one doesn't seem much but it means I have to plan better and take time out for me rather than thinking of what other people want me to do.
Both of these are not much, but little steps cover miles!
We can do this!! (I hope..!)
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Sorry to hear about the social anxiety. We all have our struggles, and I'm so glad you're going to do something about it. I like your aims! Which is your book for January, have you chosen yet?
I am sure we can do it! We cannot be perfect but we can make progress
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I got a new book for Christmas which I plan on reading. After that, I promised a friend (well, 2 actually) that I would read the Harry Potter series so that will be the next lot to read!
Progress is good. It means you're going somewhere!
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Ah great, so you're already "booked" for about 8 months or so
Indeed!
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Yep.
(I saw what you did there. Very 'punny'! )
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