So about the middle of August every year, I start to do an upheaval of my life from the bottom up. I realized this when I though about the last time I tried to enact life changes and it was about the same time as last year. It's like a second resolution phase for me. I think the most common reason is that this is when I realize that more than half of the year is up and I have a lot to do to keep pace. Oddly enough my August resolution phase is much more effective than my January one. I think that's because in August I know where I need to be for the rest of the year and am more motivated to take steps (motivation for me is much lower in the winter months).
I had wondered if this is the same for everyone as it is for me. Well, one of the most important lessons of life I've ever learned is that if you wonder about something and the answer can be looked up, look it up. So I did so, by googling for "most common month for life changes". I got three responses: most common month for weddings, births, and suicide. Those are some dramatic and disparate life changes.
Realizing that a month for life change probably hasn't been established (honestly expected it to be decided and that it'd be January), I decided to search for "most common month". This is the list of MCM's that I have determined:
- Birth - October (by average) Source: WebMD
- Weddings - June Source: ARA via Favorideas.com
- Suicide - April (but only by anecdote so I won't provide source)
- Homicide - torn between June and July (again not agreed)
- Poultry Food poisoning - December
- Loss of virginity for teenagers - June
- Car crashes - December
- Arrested for DUI - October
- Tornadoes - April
- Pruning Grapes - March
- Taking the SAT - June
- Catching a cold - December
- Catching the flu - February
- Plowing (Ploughing!) - September
- Lightning strikes in Florida - July
- Divorce - January
- Mating of Adders - April
- Arson - May
- Finding "crop circles" - July
As for my life changes, the most crucial a bit too personal and I won't share them here. But one of the main ones is to consume food more healthily. I've depended too much on packaged food and fast food, and it's time for me to cook as many meals as I can, saving those meals where I eat splurgingly (spellcheck won't give me that word but I'll take it anyway) to be the meals I eat with others. Another is to get to bed at a more reasonable hour when I can (with work sometimes that is impossible). A third is to get into more social sports, such as baseball, tennis, and possibly handball, if the group that I'm organizing with will start moving on it.
I guess the key lesson here is to know when you're in a rut and try to break it, which I have started to do. Maybe if the world tried to do the same there wouldn't be a most common month for anything. I think maybe that'd be better for everyone involved.
2 comments:
Love the "loss of teenage virginity" stat!
Re: eating more healthily and going to bed earlier, if you can read the China diet check it out. I've been moving away from meat products, with the exception of a few days a month near the full moon (Hey, I'm kinda kooky :), and I've felt more energetic and have lost ten pounds :)
w/r/t going to bed earlier, I now shut down my computer (or try to) at 9 pm every night. :)
good luck with your august CTRL-ALT-DEL!
I just checked out the China Diet and it's plausible for me. I actually consume a lot of fish and some turkey these days, and rarely a little ham in beans (one ham steak across 5 servings of black-eyed peas). I can't honestly remember the last time I've had a hamburger. That being said, I don't quite know if whether or not it is the actual animal, the cooking method, or the additives/antibiotics that make it unhealthy in large quantities, but it is a good idea to eat it only sparingly.
As far as going to bed earlier, it usually isn't an option for be to be offline before 9pm, but I'm working on that. Sometimes I'm administering matches online when the match lasts until 11pm or registration starts at 4am. I think that my biggest fight will be to recover my sleep schedule after such a day.
Anyway, thanks for the well wishes! I still wonder if I'm the only person who does this in August...
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