Try Something New (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
somethingnew) wrote2010-02-01 11:38 am
somethingnew) wrote2010-02-01 11:38 am
The Something New Project: One year of trying something new every day.
My goal, for the next year, is to try something new on a daily basis. It might be to try a new food, try a new craft, or try a new method of getting to work.
If you look, you'll see this account was created on January 4th, 2010. This was very much as case of a great idea, a few days too late for New Year's. But, I had an awful New Year's, so I didn't see much reason to commemorate it. And I've been involved in academia for 75% of my life, so to me, the New Year starts in August. However, this isn't a project I wanted to wait until then to start.
That said, what says I have to start and end on a particular 'New Year' that has been arbitrarily set by society? I could, if I wanted, start on any day that I wish. With that in mind, I looked ahead at my calendar and discovered a particular date that had, to me, more meaning than starting on January 1st or August 20th. Instead, I've decided to start this particular project on my birthday. I think that finishing this project will be a nice birthday present for myself
As I started planning this project, I realized that it doesn't necessarily have to be something I've never done before. After all, who doesn't have something that they haven't done for a very long time? So, in a sense, I'm using the phrase 'something new' as broadly as possible.
For example: I can't remember the last time I painted my fingernails. It's not for a lack of wanting to - I love the look of well painted nails. I'm just awful at painting my nails and having it turn out nicely. I'm too impatient to wait for them to try and then they get smudged and I end up taking the color all off (except for the little bits that I can't get out of my cuticles that make me look, for the next three days until it wears off, like I just murdered someone). So, if I decide one day over the next year to paint my nails, well, that just might be my one thing. Conversely, I can remember the last time I had a manicure. It was sometime in 1999 (or maybe 1998), I was a sophomore in college and had a coupon book that included a manicure at my hair salon. It's been over a decade, so if I decide to pamper myself by getting a manicure, I think that it will count. The nice thing about being the one making the rules, occasionally you can write them to suit your needs.
(For the record: I have never had a professional massage and you wouldn't believe how much I'm looking forward to that day. As well as the day I dye my hair purple - my planned birthday gift to myself on February 2, 2011, if I make it through this project.)
The Try Something New Project is, for me, as much about creating new, and hopefully better, habits as it is about expanding my horizons. It means I'm going to do things like try brussel sprouts for the first time or buy a car. It means that there will be good things and there will, likely, be bad things. But they will all be recorded here for the next year.
Things to Try:
If you look, you'll see this account was created on January 4th, 2010. This was very much as case of a great idea, a few days too late for New Year's. But, I had an awful New Year's, so I didn't see much reason to commemorate it. And I've been involved in academia for 75% of my life, so to me, the New Year starts in August. However, this isn't a project I wanted to wait until then to start.
That said, what says I have to start and end on a particular 'New Year' that has been arbitrarily set by society? I could, if I wanted, start on any day that I wish. With that in mind, I looked ahead at my calendar and discovered a particular date that had, to me, more meaning than starting on January 1st or August 20th. Instead, I've decided to start this particular project on my birthday. I think that finishing this project will be a nice birthday present for myself
As I started planning this project, I realized that it doesn't necessarily have to be something I've never done before. After all, who doesn't have something that they haven't done for a very long time? So, in a sense, I'm using the phrase 'something new' as broadly as possible.
For example: I can't remember the last time I painted my fingernails. It's not for a lack of wanting to - I love the look of well painted nails. I'm just awful at painting my nails and having it turn out nicely. I'm too impatient to wait for them to try and then they get smudged and I end up taking the color all off (except for the little bits that I can't get out of my cuticles that make me look, for the next three days until it wears off, like I just murdered someone). So, if I decide one day over the next year to paint my nails, well, that just might be my one thing. Conversely, I can remember the last time I had a manicure. It was sometime in 1999 (or maybe 1998), I was a sophomore in college and had a coupon book that included a manicure at my hair salon. It's been over a decade, so if I decide to pamper myself by getting a manicure, I think that it will count. The nice thing about being the one making the rules, occasionally you can write them to suit your needs.
(For the record: I have never had a professional massage and you wouldn't believe how much I'm looking forward to that day. As well as the day I dye my hair purple - my planned birthday gift to myself on February 2, 2011, if I make it through this project.)
The Try Something New Project is, for me, as much about creating new, and hopefully better, habits as it is about expanding my horizons. It means I'm going to do things like try brussel sprouts for the first time or buy a car. It means that there will be good things and there will, likely, be bad things. But they will all be recorded here for the next year.
Things to Try:
- Brussel sprouts
- Getting a massage
- Making bread (without my bread maker)
- Join a gym
- Go to a spa
- Present at a national conference
- Publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal
- Buy a car
- Make a meal plan (and stick to it!)
- Make pearled barley
- Liver (but I'm going to let someone else cook it)
- Organize a kite flying trip with friends
- Visit a new city (or two or three)
- Visit another country I haven't visited before (or two or three)
- Join a CSA
- Pay off my credit card
- Cancel my cable
- Finish (and block) a shawl
- Make a rag rug
- Learn to weave
- Chai
- Start an emergency fund
- Take a Zumba class
Let's see where Tuesday takes me.