Resolutions/Challenges

The stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
- Lao Tzu

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
- Oscar Wilde

When I write, I do it above all to change myself and not to think the same thing as before.
- Michel Foucault

I write because I want to find something out.  I write in order to learn something that I didn’t know before I wrote it.
- Laurel Richardson

This year I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about research and how I will research and it has led me to a lot of soul searching.  What I have discovered is that the point of the research that I would like to do has little to do with discovering a perfect teaching method (since I don’t think one exists) or proving that video games are valid in the classroom (it depends on many factors, particularly if you think the classroom itself is valid).  Instead, what I would like to do is think differently than I have before, to look carefully at a phenomenon and at myself, in order to do justice to the topic by resisting a practical, simplistic, conclusion and embracing an equally practical (in my opinion), complex, open-ended, never-ending conversation.  But, the problem is always, how to actually do this type of work.  How do you do work that tears yourself from yourself?  How do you, composed of all of your cultural bias and personal attachments, get out of yourself enough to think differently?  What does thinking differently even mean?

To take a stab at this, I decided that my New Year’s resolution would be a year-long series of mini-challenges.  The challenges are meant to make me feel uncomfortable (as if grad school wasn’t enough, right?), to tear myself from myself.  I’ve tried to create a broad list that includes physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual challenges.  What I plan to do is post the full and complete challenge each Monday and then post my struggles/thoughts on the following Sunday.  I really don’t know where this will lead.  I really don’t know what I’ll learn, but I hope that it takes me out of my comfort zone and helps me to be able to see the world in unexpected ways and I hope to able to use this new way of thinking in my research and in my life.  Following my Stay Awake post, this is my best effort to stay awake and to resist falling into the default.

I also have to remember (please remind me) that I must enter each of these challenges with a joyful spirit.  It will do me no good to begrudgingly go through the motions.  I must bathe in the discomfort/difference as though it is a good massage, one that hurts just enough to feel really wonderful.

I would like to extend the offer to anyone (but most especially to women that read this) who wants to try out these challenges, week by week, and post their own new insights as comments.  You can even pop in just when the challenge interests you.  I’m sure your insights would only multiply my own as I believe you often learn more in community than going it alone.  So, peruse, browse and let me know what you think.  Some might sound superficial, some scary, some stupid, some easy, but I hope that they will all do just a little bit to help me stay awake when my first instinct is to fall asleep.

Below you’ll find the list of mini-challenges.  I won’t be doing them in any particular order, instead, I’ll try to find things appropriate for that week (so I won’t be trying to garden in February).  I’ll be officially starting on Monday, January 4.  Also, I only have 51 so far, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to think one more in the next year.  Anyone have ideas?

1. No make up for a week
2. Fast for a day
3. Go vegan for a week
4. Physical challenge (something that scares me or is physically difficult)
5. Set a personal record
6. Play everyday for a week
7. Dance everyday for a week
8. No soda/caffeine
9. No car for a week
10. No buying anything for a week
11. Bake bread
12. Take care of a plant
13. Read Walden
14. Read a children’s book everyday for a week
15. Watch a few movies from childhood you haven’t seen in awhile
16. Find new (interesting, inspiring) music and listen to it everyday for a week (and sing along)
17. Write a poem, perfect it everyday for a week
18. Draw/paint a picture
19. Give up television for a week
20. Learning something new
21. Rearrange a room
22. Complete an entire NY Times crossword throughout the week
23. Make up a game
24. No email for a week
25. Rewrite (or write) your About page
26. Interview a family member
27. Interview someone with a different experience
28. Host a dinner party
29. Volunteer
30. Call friends
31. Teach someone something
32. No talking for a week (or as little as possible)
33. Write a vivid childhood memory
34. Write a fictional story
35. Go to a play/symphony
36. Video tape yourself
37. Go camping
38. Meditate everyday for a week
39. Attend a vastly different religious service
40. Travel
41. Ask what others honestly think of you (and just listen)
42. Practice complete patience
43. Write to an old teacher
44. Pray everyday for a week
45. Take a hot air balloon ride (a real one)
46. Do something just for fun
47. Surprise someone
48. Plan a date with yourself
49. Take a photograph everyday for a week
50. Don’t create a list for a week (this one is pretty scary for me!)
51. Do something spontaneous