My goal over this winter break is to be sufficiently disconnected from work such that the list of my most important problems become dull and unmapped after thoughts. I want when I resume work that I feel the need to rebuild and rethink my problem spaces from scratch. I know that if I accomplish this that I will have successfully allowed my time away to do its most important work. To allow me to fully relax, be present, and allow my mind to focus on things other than creating novel work products.
Put more simply, I want to be deliberate about taking back time.
I do not necessarily subscribe to new year resolutions, not because the process lacks value, but because I believe a year is much too long a period before considering serious course corrections or establishing new habits. With that said this is a big year for me, both personally and professionally, but the only goal I want to articulate here can be summed up in the following quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel:
Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement… get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.
My pledge is to seek the extraordinary in the everyday.
