New Year's Resolutions and Other Goals

It sounds like you're making good progress. \o/ I look forward to hearing more.

>> The most popular resolutions list stood out to me because I spent the week reading Laziness Does Not Exist <<

The idea of laziness is really a western-civilization thing. Tribal cultures don't tend to have a work ethic; they think the western obsession with work is weird and unhealthy. (They're not wrong.) They work when a job needs doing and that's it. Otherwise they are telling stories, making crafts, resting, or whatever. So white people think that's lazy, but it's a much better life balance.

>> and "The Case Against Budget Culture". <<

You might like "The Richness of Giving" on the gift economy. I think my favorite description of money is the Green Frog Skin story from Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions.

>> (I'd also recommend reading about diet culture because the "budget culture" post builds on that concept.) <<

Eh, most of it comes out of control-freak Christianity, particularly the Calvinist branch. Which is ironic for a religion founded by a poor brown homeless dude. But the American foodstream is so fucked up that it's almost impossible to get a really healthy diet unless you can raise most or all your own food, which is hard. So most people just do the least-worst they can, which is nerve-wracking.

I like having goals because it gives me a sense of accomplishment. But I also like having a yard I can wander through and put things in my mouth without needing a goal, where at any moment I might find that Gaia has helpfully planted something for me that I didn't have to pay for.

My dietary goals tend to be things like "let's read cookbooks together and pick recipes to try," or "I'd like to eat a wider variety of non-commercial foods," or "it might be prudent to explore dryland foods before the whole continent shrivels up." We recently found a restaurant that serves nopales (prickly pear cactus pads) and I was really surprised by how meaty the texture is. Not much flavor beyond the grilling smoke, but you could douse that in steak sauce and have a pretty good meat replacement -- which is healthy and climate-friendly. Oh, and the gardening goal of visiting our local food forest so I can mine it for more edibles to grow at home. I got a bunch of new stuff from it this past fall that I'm super excited to experiment with come spring, if any of it survives. Food is just generally interesting.

>> I'll pop back with my check-ins in a bit but I wanted to share those links. It's important to me that I'm building my resolutions and goals intentionally and in line with my values so I do a lot of reading about this kind of thing.<<

Somewhere on here are some links about developing goals from intentions, so browse around and you'll probably find them. It's a good approach, especially for people who dislike fiddly lists.