An existential after dinner mint...
Resolute: unwavering.
Resolution: A course of action determined or decided upon.
Resolve: To make a firm decision about.
Goal: The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed.
Why have I bothered to define these terms? At the end of every year, as I shivver away in Michigan, I steal time away from the family to write down a list of 'goals' for the new year. I do not have resolutions. As you can see from the above definitions, resolutions are much stronger, more final, and less open to interpretation than are goals. It's like the difference between an arrow sign at a fork in the road and a map with a little 'you are here' sticker on it. The arrow points you in a direction, some direction, a general 'thataway' kind of thing. But a 'you are here' sticker really doesn't give any room to play. Whether you like it or not, whether you planned to be 'here' or three miles from 'here' or anywhere on earth but 'here', you're 'here'. Resolutions pretty much put you on the map, but cartographically speaking, I'm still running up against that old 'the world is flat' thing in my life. What I mean is, just when I think I have an idea of what the world is all about, and I think I have a strong grasp on who I am and what I am doing, I go two steps further and realize there is yet another curve, another slope. You don't just sail straight at the horizon, you go up, down, back, forth, over, under, around , and through. And then you wake up one morning, and there is still more sea ahead. I like goals, you see. They allow for things to change. They understand that you might be aiming in one direction for several months, and then change it after that. Goals represent who and where I would like to be at a given point in time. They are either met, or re-negotiated. Resolutions are very large busses forced to travel down rocky narrow paths. They don't always quite fit, but by that point, what can you do?
Okay. I'm really just rationalizing because I had a goal to write in this thing at least once a week and it's already been seventeen days since the goal was set forth. But then, what is time...
Resolution: A course of action determined or decided upon.
Resolve: To make a firm decision about.
Goal: The purpose toward which an endeavor is directed.
Why have I bothered to define these terms? At the end of every year, as I shivver away in Michigan, I steal time away from the family to write down a list of 'goals' for the new year. I do not have resolutions. As you can see from the above definitions, resolutions are much stronger, more final, and less open to interpretation than are goals. It's like the difference between an arrow sign at a fork in the road and a map with a little 'you are here' sticker on it. The arrow points you in a direction, some direction, a general 'thataway' kind of thing. But a 'you are here' sticker really doesn't give any room to play. Whether you like it or not, whether you planned to be 'here' or three miles from 'here' or anywhere on earth but 'here', you're 'here'. Resolutions pretty much put you on the map, but cartographically speaking, I'm still running up against that old 'the world is flat' thing in my life. What I mean is, just when I think I have an idea of what the world is all about, and I think I have a strong grasp on who I am and what I am doing, I go two steps further and realize there is yet another curve, another slope. You don't just sail straight at the horizon, you go up, down, back, forth, over, under, around , and through. And then you wake up one morning, and there is still more sea ahead. I like goals, you see. They allow for things to change. They understand that you might be aiming in one direction for several months, and then change it after that. Goals represent who and where I would like to be at a given point in time. They are either met, or re-negotiated. Resolutions are very large busses forced to travel down rocky narrow paths. They don't always quite fit, but by that point, what can you do?
Okay. I'm really just rationalizing because I had a goal to write in this thing at least once a week and it's already been seventeen days since the goal was set forth. But then, what is time...
posted by Master of None at 9:34 PM
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