Failed New Year's Resolution

(photo as it appears on: http://www.irregardless.com/events/bring-in-the-new-years-at-irregardless/)

Seems a funny thing to be grateful for a failure. New Year's resolutions are made in the spirit of self improvement, often accompanied by reassurances like, "This year will be different. This year I'll stick to my resolution." Well, you know what? I didn't. And you know what else? I'm grateful for it.

As you may recall, I had set my sights on learning Python (a computer programming language) to an extent as to be able to use it to solve practical problems. I started off strong (don't we all) but in the last month or two my devotion to this endeavor has waned to a resounding zero. So why am I grateful for this?

This tells me a lot about myself. If you were to ask American pragmatist John Dewey why I stopped learning Python, he would probably say something like, "Because you don't really want to learn it." I may want to learn it in theory, but the evidence shows that I am unwilling to dedicate the time and effort to actually doing so. In other words, actions speak louder than words.

Ultimately, this failed New Year's resolution has helped me get a better sense of my true priorities. Sure, learning Python would be cool. And sure, I love the idea of learning and am often sidetracked by sparkly new skills and hobbies. But actually learning these things to any degree of mastery takes considerable effort that I am often just unwilling to put forth. This is not a bad thing. This means that my time and energy are precious. This means that only a select few areas are worth my devotion. This is really a beautiful revelation. So instead of wallowing in the fact that my New Year's resolution fell through, I'm taking this lesson in stride, letting Python fall to the wayside, and refocusing my attention on that which is pertinent, useful, and meaningful to my life. For example, learning more about Russia and improving my language (I just ordered a couple exciting, informative books from Amazon to this end).

I'm super-psyched about realigning my priorities and I couldn't have done it without failing. So thank you, failed New Year's resolution, for showing me the way.