Each year, the turn of the calendar brings the cultural practice of creating “New Year’s Resolutions” in striving to improve our self, our lives, our health, or our finances with some level of commitment in which we are the judge of pass or fail. This practice is not something I really subscribe to. My life in both surviving and thriving with cystic fibrosis (CF) has entailed a willingness to go against the grain in not being limited or defined by perceptions or expectations of science, statistics, or cultural belief about me or my CF. So instead of creating resolutions that have an integral option of 'success' or 'failure', I am creating 'anti' resolutions for the turn of 2018.  But they are not limited to just 12 months. 

Some may think an anti-resolution is instead of a commitment to DO something, a commitment to NOT do something (i.e., to quit smoking, to drink less, to be less critical, etc.).  Others might consider an anti-resolution to be more specific, measurable and/or realistic than the traditionally ambiguous resolutions such as ‘exercising more’, ‘reading more’, ‘being more positive'.

In either instance however, I find the stress and anxiety created by such a defined threshold of succeeding or failing to be counter productive in starting the new year in a positive direction. The common criticism I find in “New Year Resolutions” are that they rarely last beyond a month or two, or three at best. The gym memberships go unused, the diets become more and more flexible, and by April our 'instant gratification' mindset has mostly forgotten what was committed to in the first place.

For me, an ‘anti-resolution’ is more of a choice to realize a direction of living that is not based on a pass/fail, but instead is an ongoing process of shaping who I am, and how I can gain the most value from my every day.

This year, I am going to focus on six anti-resolutions, which I will cover the first one in this article, and the following five anti-resolutions in my subsequent articles.

My first 2018 anti-resolution is to:

Focus On Small Steps

 

I believe that things occur in progression. The process of taking things one step at a time provides a learning experience of deciding if that step is right or wrong, especially when gaining value from mistakes along the way. Jumping into something without the time and experience to build knowledge along the way will result in costly mistakes including injury, sickness, bankruptcy, divorce or even death.

When I get on my bike after months of not riding, I no longer jump into a 40-mile ride right away that results in aches, pains and possible injury, but will now enjoy the building from a 5- to 10- to 15-, 25- and THEN a 40-mile ride. This process is not really about achieving a set number of miles, but is about building my stamina and fitness level that will provide me a balance of challenge and enjoyment with minimal risk of injury. 

Currently, I am striving to be more aware of what I eat and the impact it has on my body. This does not just mean eating only ‘healthy’ food and completely eliminating ‘bad’ food.  The first step was understanding what my body’s needs are from both a CF perspective, a diabetes perspective, my age and metabolism, and what my current food preferences are.  The next step was in learning more about food including nutritional values, functional values, pH values, etc. The next step was understanding what foods could be positive alternatives for others that seemed to be doing more harm than good. 

While I am still in this process, my example is that I did not just ambiguously say that “I am going to eat more healthy” or “I will eat 3 servings of spinach per week”. The small steps in this process are adding up to a much greater overall value for me. 

Stay tuned for my next anti-resolution of 2018: Being Open To New Ways Of Achieving Health.

 

Help Others Live STRONGER and LONGER- 

 

 

 

Brian Callanan is currently 40-years-old, and was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth.  He is the Founder and Executive Director of the CFLF, and practices an active lifestyle primarily through swimming and cycling on and off road, but also enjoys snowboarding, hiking, sailing and rock-climbing. You may email him directly at brian@cflf.org.