I'll have a P please, Bob

Happy New Year! Real people as well as Google and Microsoft tell me it's 2014. Wow. Brilliant. I never know which year it is. Students yell at me most weeks: "Um, Laura, it's not 1998" or "2003 was ten years ago" but at least for today, the second of January 2009 2014 I have it right. 

The first challenge over at Trifecta this year is a three-word new year's resolution. The prompt for this week was inspired by Michael Hess and his own three-worder, Just Be Nice. I love his sentiment, although I hate the word nice. Resolutions so far vary from the personal and prescriptive to the godly and sci-fi. It's all good. Some resolutions are words to be broken, others are fiction to be realised. I love them all from the inspiring to the downright stupid. It's always interesting to see what importance flows from our minds at the start of a brand new year. Like this one, 1991 2014.

So, onto my three words. I was thinking about a friend today while I came home on the train and how we have this running joke that she loves all foods beginning with P. Peas. Pizza. Pies. Pomegranate. Somehow, these thoughts got mixed up with my wishes for the year, which turned into verbs and so my new year's resolution for 2006 2014 is a field of Ps:

• Procreate (I hope my mum doesn't read this or she will not stop banging on about it)
• Publish (Like most people who write)
• Participate (Don't be a bystander)

Resolutions are hard. If they were easy-peasy we wouldn't even bother doing this. Have fun sticking to yours. I'll have a P, please, Bob (Thanks, Blockbusters fans). 

Click on the trike to read more entries in this week's Trifextra Challenge and vote on your top three.

Getting it good

If there's any month for some self/life/love/work evaluation, January usually gets the job. New year, new you! headlines will cry out. Change, change, change, best, best, best, forwards, forwards, forwards: this is what we all need to keep going through life happier/healthier/lovelier/more successful.

Resolutions made in that burst of Januaryness will fade as real life gets its grip back and the old routines, preferences and realities fold you back into your life. The perfect body/partner/job will disappear on the horizon as commitments and deadlines replace dreams and ideas. Instead of change, change, change it becomes can't, can't, can't. 

Perfection doesn't exist. The plan is just to make it good. That doesn't necessarily mean huge sacrifices and a wipe-out of all you have now. Before anything, it means a fair assessment. What you have, not what you haven't. In a world defined by our need for more, it only takes a second to sit quietly and count what you have right now. You'll surprise yourself. You might even see it's already some way to being good.

Good, with moments of both brilliance and despair, is good enough. There is nothing wrong with making something better; one step - one sure, solid step at a time. Jumping a mile ahead, only to get injured, fall down or completely collapse is a lesson that says, 'I am still there, but take your time.'

I have a tendency to jump in with two feet without thinking. No, that's wrong. I am the sort of person who will jump in with two feet without thinking. I used to have no patience and now I have a little bit. This patience helps me look around once in a while. I may have moved just a couple of steps, but I can still see a dream on the horizon. I'm still there. I don't need to try and hitch a ride and change the itinerary. 

January comes from the Latin word ianua, meaning door. The future will never be your idea of perfection if the present isn't good. So open the door inch by inch. Throwing it open might only lead it to it swinging back shut with a bang.