New 52: A Life Project for 2011

A few months ago, I posted a status update on Facebook that said time was flying by too fast, I wished that it would slow down. Many of my friends commented on that post, lamenting the same thing. Then Todd made a comment that really caught my attention. (Yes, husband and wife communicating via Facebook walls, ha ha!) He said that scientist have found that the perception of time slows down when you are engaged in NEW experiences, because there's more for your brain to process. That's when the seeds of my life project for 2011 started germinating. More than slowing down time, what is better than making new memories? You can read more about the theory of slowing down your perception of time by having new experiences in these two articles here and here. While I don't necessarily agree with some of the more new-agey and holistic parts of the article, I am intrigued by the scientific parts.

Another discontent I've been feeling in my life is the lack of being "in the moment". I go from one busy thing to another, and hardly have the mindfulness to just BE in the moment, enjoying the journey. So, I combined these two life goals together (seeking new experiences and being more mindful/in the moment) and came up with New 52, my life project for 2011. Every week in 2011, I am going to pursue a new experience. It doesn't have to be a HUGE deal. It could just be reading a new book, visiting a new park, driving to a new restaurant, attempting new knitting/crochet/sewing project. But it has to be NEW.

The project wasn't always called New 52, oh no. It had no name.
I was in San Francisco in early December when I shared my intentions and heart on this matter with my good friend Peppermint. She jumped on it right away. She could not have been more enthusiastic about it. And her creative brain said, "Let's call it New 52!" If there's anything better than having new experiences, it's doing the project with one of your good friends. She set about writing down all her ideas on little notes all over the place. I wrote down some ideas in Evernote. But then in a flash of brilliance, she said, "and people can join in! They can put links about THEIR new experiences on Mr. Linky on our blogs." See, now it's a community project! And really, I know you scrappers out there are salivating at all the NEW photo ops and NEW scrapbook pages you will be creating, right?


Peppermint also made this graphic for our new project.

If you want to join in, you can put this badge on your blog sidebar too.


If you feel intimidated to come up with a new experience every week, then just join in when you can! There's no pressure. This project will mainly be blogging your New 52 every week.  I personally hope to make a scrapbook page every week about it, in addition to the blog post  At the end of the year, hopefully I'll have 52 pages for a book that I can look back on proudly and relive every moment of NEWness. :)

You can read Peppermint's blog post to announce NEW 52 here.

So that's our life project for 2011.  I hope you'll consider joining in on the fun and sharing our new experiences together!  Oh and I have a feeling I know what my NEW 52:  Week 1 will be.  No hints!  :p