My Resolution is an Inside Job

Envisioning solutions by looking for them

A lot of folks are recapping 2023. Books read lists (which I LOVE, please continue), accomplishments, milestones, all that. 2023, much like 2022, was a year of tremendous personal loss for me. Rather than making a laundry list of grievances on this last day of the year, I am looking forward. I finally landed on a resolution, reflecting on a quote I read years ago and how I plan to apply it to my life over the coming year (and every year after).

What you focus on is what you create

Honestly, it’s such a simple notion, and before you roll your eyes or accuse me of some Law of Attraction nonsense, hear me out. I’m making a case for this, beyond the much-mocked practice of “manifesting” that seems to be effective primarily for already-privileged people.

1. When you learn to ride a motorcycle, the first Very Hard Thing to learn, even for those who rode bicycles through childhood, is how to turn. Getting a heavy machine balanced on two wheels to turn requires leaning in the direction of the turn while pressing the handlebars in the direction you want to turn. The key to initiating the turn is looking where you want to go. Many a beginning rider has taken their first spill by doing everything except looking.

You can’t change directions without looking towards where you wish to be. This is a mechanical explanation for a philosophical concept.

2. I saw a clip on Instagram the other day that stopped me in my tracks:

ridguerra

A post shared by @ridguerra

This lovely woman, Ruth Guerra, explains a concept that I have thought about extensively in recent years: how we are exposed to so many dystopian visions of the future that it becomes difficult for us to imagine a future that is not some sort of hellscape. This is one of the reasons I stopped watching Game of Thrones long before the end and why I never even considered season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale. When friends reported having nightmares about the latter, I shrugged, suggesting they could just stop watching!

We have the opportunity to experience almost unlimited depictions of violence (especially) against women and a future distorted by unlivable conditions—to the extent that these things become normalized and feel almost inevitable. As much as we all loved the women in handmaid garb protesting against ever-diminishing reproduction rights, the overturning of Roe v Wade still managed to shock us. Despite having cheered on dystopian cosplay about just that.

Whoops, this is a manifestation a la française, a demonstration

3. So, what about this idea that we need to focus on what we want to create? Another way of looking at this is to consider a mindset shift, which can also be viewed as the overcoming of limiting self-perceptions or beliefs. This is more than “manifestation mindset” or “Law of Attraction” hokum.

Mindset Theory is nothing new. In 1988 psychologist Carol Dweck wrote:

Success comes from having the right mindset rather than intelligence, talent or education. People with a fixed mindset believe that they're born with certain intelligence, skills and abilities that cannot change.

But this isn’t just some woo-woo idea. It’s been scientifically validated. Which brings me to my resolution—

• focus more attention on how to make the world better

• use my skills to contribute to the world I want

• DAILY seek out news about scientific breakthroughs, social movements, and positive developments moving us toward a world where we can all live more equitably

Because as much as my daily focus on injustice and war and environmental catastrophe fulfills some perverse desire to self-injure with the weight of the world, it is not helping me envision new ways of living and doing and being. Tamping down my own capacity for joy in the service of solidarity with global suffering is not helping anyone.

I still believe that joy is a revolutionary act. And that when we pursue joy (not the temporary, external sort derived from the suffering of others, like fast fashion or narcotics), we are more capable of creating the conditions that lead to the liberation of ourselves and others. Because remember: we are not free until we are ALL free.

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A long time ago, researching a writing gig I didn’t end up taking, I set up Google Alerts for “sustainable materials,” “sustainable agriculture,” “water conservation tech,” and so on. The results were breathtaking. A roundup of news about hopeful innovations would land in my inbox each week, and it delighted and amazed me.

I’m making new alerts today. I’m loading up on Ursula K. Le Guin titles. I’m committing to writing my legislators BUT ALSO editors for news outlets, because public perception flows through these media filters and frankly, a lot of what comes out is shitty because these folks need to be taken to task.

Please join me.

On the last night of 2023, I lay in bed in The Hague at my best friend’s house, listening to fireworks exploding literally all around us. All I could think of was the millions living under bombardment, and with every breath, I wished for peace and promised to do everything I could to help bring us all closer to the world we dream of and deserve.

To kick off a new type of year this morning, I did something anathema to every warmth-loving cell in my body: took a dip in the 45-degree North Sea, so searingly cold it numbed my feet for an hour. We felt so alive, so brave, so briefly powerful.

In case you were wondering, it was below 50 degrees outside the water.

This is the spirit I am carrying into this year. In hope, in joy, in action.
Please join me.