Resolutions

I told myself that when I started the New Year, I would start with the resolutions that I told myself to keep. And what’s a better way to keep them to write them down to keep myself to it.

1) Read more books. You have been given the luxury to have access to knowledge. This is a privilege that not many people have. You have your power to influence others and help them, now add your knowledge to it. I think it will be for the best to write down the list of books that you need to read for this year. And you should at least read 6 books this year, at most 12.

• Pornography: Men Possessing Women by Andrea Dworkin
• A Hero of A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
• Ain’t I A Woman by Bell Hooks
• Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by Bell Hooks
• Spatializing Blackness by Rashad Shabazz
• Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
• Failure is An Option by H. Jon Benjamin
• The Concept of Terror (Audio-book on Amazon)
• The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginner Poets by Ted Kooser
• Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by John Tierney and Roy Baumeister
• Don’t Look Back In Anger by Stefanie Brassen and Her Colleagues

2) Be more confident. You have a problem doing things because they scare you. It’s 2020. You have made so many posts showing that you have grown up. Prove it, Josh. Show me how much you “improved” in your perception of yourself and your self confidence. You should be able to play Rocket League and Smash and League of Legends without feeling negative or being afraid that you will lose or being afraid that you suck. You can’t get better if you don’t practice something, Josh. You’ve been riding that high horse of “practice what you preach” but here you are, no better than anyone else. Build up your self worth and walk with some backbone for once. I had better see you playing League of Legends or Smash or Rocket League with no emotional issues, or any other multiplayer games that you play. Got it? Because you take the comments too seriously and end up hurting yourself more than others hurt you with.

3) Clean up your act. I don’t think there is a lot to say. You need to clean your room. You need to clean your house. You need to clean your restroom. You need a schedule to do cleaning. Once a week, do laundry. Once a week, clean your room. Twice a month, clean the house. You also need to learn how to cook, so by the end of February, you should be confident in cooking at least basic meals, got it? This is sad that you are 20 years old and you can’t cook for yourself. You are wasting money that you can be saving on fast food. It’s not even healthy for you. Look up some recipes and get some tips from others. Just ask for help, for Christ’s sake.

4) Save money. You have been pretty good on saving money, and with the tips that you have from the coffee shop, that can go towards your gas and maybe something else. Which means you can split your paycheck in half and throw it in savings like you did at McDonald’s. You know how expensive Sac State is, so you need to do some saving up for it. Cut back stuff that you’d usually indulge in, ask for carpools, etc. Do the most you can to save. AND FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING, PLEASE USE DAD’S LEDGER FOR YOUR FINANCES. IT’S ONLY THERE TO TRACK YOUR SPENDING, AND YOU KNOW HOW BAD YOUR SPENDING HABITS CAN GET! DO THE RIGHT THING, JOSH!

5) Spend money on good times. I know that this contradicts the last part, but you gotta remember that you need to have good times with others. Try and spend/save money for day things, like going out to get coffee with friends or going to the drive-ins, instead of buying another game that you know that you aren’t going to play. Put more of an emphasis on how you want to spend your money other than what you want to spend it on, if that makes sense. Sure, buying a new Switch game that you are half-excited for is great, but wouldn’t it be better to save $100 for a trip to San Francisco?

6) Take more photos. You keep forgetting to take photos of your experiences, so when you try and recount everything that you did that year, you forget the small things. If you know that you are going on a day trip, go and take your camera or your Polaroid. Make sure to take at least one photo whenever you go somewhere. Enjoy what you have, and take a picture for it, because you never know what you have until it’s gone.

7) Hygiene. Increase your hygiene. I don’t mean that you have bad hygiene at the moment, but take care of your body. You need to take your inhaler more often, actually, more altogether. You know what happens when you stop taking medicine, right? The bacteria and germs get stronger, so you’ll have to up the dosage. You need to learn how to take better care of your face. You have some soaps and stuff, but what you’re doing isn’t enough. Ask Elizabeth or Alayna some tips on how to better take care of your face. You also need to eat healthier and drink more water. Remember 64 oz a day, and a balanced diet. You bought that $45 Hydroflask, so you had better put it to some use, Josh.

8) Re-Learn Japanese. You know how much joy the Japanese Exchange students brought to you when you were here. You even wrote a speech for them and spent so much time trying to translate it correctly. Re-download Duolingo, get your old textbooks, and once a week, spend about 30 minutes relearning your Japanese. You completely forgot Hiragana, and Katakana. And you just started to get comfortable with Kanji and then you lost it. Come on, Josh, step it up.

9) Reconnect yourself to your old hobbies. (FINISH YOUR VIDEO GAMES, watch anime, etc.) You have so many great games that are in your inventory, and they aren’t being played anytime soon. So go for it. Reconnect to what makes you happy. You reconnected with writing, and you saw the therapeutic powers of it. The same thing with anime and manga. You stopped watching it altogether. It used to be what kept your imagination going, but where did it go? Why did it disinterest you? What happened to the heated and philosophical conversations that you used to have? And the same with music. You need to open up your music tastes, Josh. You know how annoying it can get with those 100 songs on your playlist. Open it up to 200 songs, but the new 100 songs are going to be new music. Make a 2020 playlist of music that you can get into and add a new flow inside of your energy.

10) Don’t stress. You are human. I don’t expect you to do anything perfectly, nor does anyone else. Just try and stick with it as much as you can. If you fail, just keep going at it again. It’s about how many times you get back up, not how many times you fall. Re-download Habit Minder and schedule the things on your resolution to do to remind you to do them. Keep at what you need to get done and I promise you you will see positive change.

And I expect a monthly report on your progress, Josh. Don’t let yourself down.