Your own worst enemy

Your own worst enemy, Destructive Behaviour, Kick the New Year's Resolution Habit.  These are all titles that I've thought of for this post.  That I have many titles and no body to the post yet is indicative of how my day's going.  And, because it's Jan 7, I wonder whether or not it might be indicative of 2010.  

No, really, I don't subscribe to the Doom and Gloom club.  I don't want to assign predictions for the year.  That would be too "Everything is predestined" for me. No matter what date is chosen for the New Year on our calendar, people remain the same.  We eat too much, skip the gym, make a mess (see the above picture of one of my favourite messes), spend too much, fly off the handle, forget to love our neighbour as we would ourselves. To pile on the "shoulds" and "should nots" all in one month is a bit unfair . 

Of course we choose to find promises to whisper to ourselves, blog about, fb, twitter, or shout from the roof-tops.  How else can we feel that there's any hope of escape from our silly and sometimes down-right destructive habits/fetishes/behaviours? The statement "that's SO last year" shows that we see the past as a big fat failure, so why not look to the future with hope?

If this all sounds a bit cynical, take heart.  I wish to alleviate my pain too.  I just want to do it with open eyes.  I am a huge procrastinator.  What to do? What to do?  I have 15 projects (oh yeah, I'm a flagrant project starter too) on the go, some deadlines and some people waiting on me for solutions to the problems that arose because of my roping them into those projects.  I have Christmas to put away, bills to pay, learning to be done, painting to complete, and a looming art show this weekend.  So I sit and write.  Ah, there.  Admitting it is the first step.  What's your biggie? Tell me yours, I told you mine!

Dear reader, I do apologize for assuming that you might want to see the reality in it all.  Then again, you've read this far, and I've either burst your bubble already or confirmed those little niggling thoughts that you might be the one causing all that disappointment.  Cynical or not, here we are; naked. At least in the sense of stripping down the facade of perfection.  Now what do you feel?  It's a little taboo, that feeling of admitting one's faults like they might be OK isn't it?

Now what to do about the faults?  Fixing them is sometimes overrated.  *My disclaimer: if it's something like stealing or a weird animal fixation, please do not adhere to my ramblings.  The far cooler thing to do is to hang out with, acknowledge, and even encourage same-behavioured people than it is to withstand the onslaught of condescending, contemptuous looks of those still in Perfection Dream-land.  

I can personally attest to Mexico's "mañana!" (tomorrow!)  and Costa Rica's "Pura Vida" (pure life!, which in essence means enjoy life as it should be, don't worry about that right now!) as a way to let go of some of our inherent North American BULL.  

Go easy on yourself.  

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