January 2013 Recap

Well 2013 is here and I feel like it's kicking my ass a little bit. January was a hard month.

Things at work got iffy there for a few weeks and it was rough. Happily, things have settled down and are looking up. I'm glad that was short lived. Is there any worse feeling than hating your job and panicking about what you're going to do about it? Well yeah, actually, there are. Which brings me to my next point:

Breakups are hard, man. I'm going to leave it at that.

On the bright side, I did reach my fitness goals for January! I'm back into a workout routine. It sadly doesn't include nearly enough cardio right now, because I cancelled my gym membership (yup, the only person in the world who cancels a gym membership in January) and I'm waiting for the new one they're putting in at work to be open.

I did manage to run outside on a couple of warm days so that was good. Most importantly, I lost five pounds! Ten more to go! I'm aiming for four or five pounds a month, so I'm glad I at least got that off to a good start.

Not much else happened in January, apparently. I bought a heated blanket and saw Les Mis, according to Facebook.

Speaking of movies, I also saw Silverlinings Playbook. SO GOOD. GO SEE IT NOW. For real you guys.

February is off to a promising start, though I'm still in hibernation mode. It IS winter, after all. I'm okay with this. I am sticking by my Winter of Me philosophy and spending time with myself. It may seem boring and antisocial, but it feels right, so it must be what I need right now. I'm a big believer in going with your gut.

I'm not sad to see you go, January. February: please be kind!

Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run

I can't think of a time when I have ever regretted quitting something. I have quit quite a few things in my life and I don't look back on any of them and think "Man, I wish I'd stuck with that."

I've quit tee-ball, figure skating, gymnastics, dance classes, cheerleading, and playing the flute. I quit a job at a clothing store. I dropped multiple classes in college. I've quit diets, exercise programs and activity groups. I climbed almost to the top of a mountain once, then, with the peak in sight, decided I'd had enough.

People always make such a big deal about quitting something. "Don't quit," they tell you, "you'll only regret it." Or, "What a quitter! I can't believe you!" But I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Why continue doing something you don't like? Something that isn't making you happy, or leaving you with a sense of fulfillment?

It didn't matter to me if I made it to the top of that damn mountain or not. It still doesn't bother me now. I despised figure skating. I had no qualms about leaving that behind. Quitting isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of being in tune with who you are and what you want.

Of course, there are some major things that can't be quit so easily. They might require planning and strategizing. People might be relying on you not to quit. Sometimes you have to stick things out even though you really don't want to. As we get older, life becomes more and more filled with things we have to do, even though we don't want to. That's why I think it's so important to get rid of the things we can. The annoyances, the chores, the drudgery.

It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. What can stay in my life, what can go. What I want more of, what I want less of. The conclusion I've come to is that sometimes it's okay to be a quitter.