A different kind of resolution list: chuck it list

January signals a new start. A time when everyone is thinking about their grand plans for the new year, then proudly proclaim it on social media of their choice. I chose my One Word. Did you?

A friend mentioned a book she bought over the weekend. It’s called the The Chuck It List. She bought it at Target, which surprises me because I live at Target and haven’t seen this book!

The basic idea of the book is the opposite of a Bucket List.

Instead of writing the things you want to do, or resolve to do this year, or do before you die…it’s a list of things what you won’t do, or want to stop doing. List stuff you are leaving behind like “Diets I’ll Never Go On” or “Monuments I’ll Never Visit”. I’ve got a few of those.

That got me thinking about the length of my own bucket list; unless some crazy millionaire comes along asking me to tag along on his bucket list adventure, I will never cross everything, or half, off. Ever.

Then after talking to another friend (it’s been a big week of friends making me think) about the pressure our kids are feeling going into high school next year…do they apply for the AP program, IB program, or STEM program. Which high school will they enroll (think Pros and Cons list), oh my. It’s all we’ve been thinking about lately.

I am tired of feeling the weight of this decision. I realize a lot of that weight is coming from my own experience of never having a choice of a better education, instead attending the only school available…receiving not exactly a stellar education.

What kind of parent am I if I don’t at least lose a little sleep over it? I want to be that parent. The one who is relaxed and doesn’t feel like every decision in their child’s life is a life changing one.

I’ve filled out the applications for the school lottery so I just have to wait and see. “It’s out of my hands,” I tell myself; but I worry about all the things that could go wrong by making the wrong choice… this is how my anxiety-ridden brain works.

I want to chuck the toxic worry. Kick it to the curb. I’d pay big bucks for a magic pill that did that!

The worry has led me to wonder what else I want to kick to the curb.

I picked my One Word to focus on this year, now I want to choose what I don’t want to focus on.

My 2016 Chuck It List:

• Stop worrying about things that are out of my control. Other people’s choices, job, actions, the school lottery, are all out of my control. I can only control my reaction. That I need to work on.
• Stop giving away my talent. Volunteering my talents is one thing, undervaluing freelance work is another thing all together. As a fellow creative friend of mine likes to point out, “If they don’t pay for it, then they won’t value it.”
• Stop losing sleep over what others think of me. I have never, nor will I ever, be called “cool”. Exhibit A: I drive a mini van. I don’t drink, smoke anything (I live in Colorado, people), and can be a little weird. And that is okay.
• Stop reliving conversations in my head, wishing I had said something clever and brilliant. I am a nice person that gets tongue-tied. I need to learn to deal with it.
• Stop saying yes when I really want to say no. That includes saying no to freelance work that I know will be a time suck.
• Once and for all stop drinking Dr. pepper. It’s the only soda I drink. I will go two weeks without one and then I think, oh I’ll have just one. Then, bam! I am having one every day. It’s my kryptonite.

What would you put on your chuck it list?

LINKING UP with the amazing Holley Gerth.