Resolve: What happens between starting and finishing
FORWARD: SOCIABILITY was an online magazine dedicated to “Living Generously and Serving Joyfully.”
An idea born during the throes of Covid, Sociability came to life through my friendship with Tony Rutigliano. With he as the Publisher and me as Executive Editor, TOGETHER WE launched Sociability as a different kind of online magazine. We recruited friends, friends of friends, and strangers who became friends to write stories about their lives and TO serve on our board. Everyone was a volunteer. It was a magazine full of ways that people are kind to one another. OUR CONTRIBUTORS AND i SHARED stories of fresh air and dogs, looking back and looking ahead, loving people just as they are (including yourself), sharing one’s talents and enthusiasm with others, dads spending time with daughters, moms supporting one another, and baking really good cake. FOR ME, THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH OUR CONTRIBUTORS WAS EXTRAORDINARY.
THE MAGAZINE existed from November 2020 - May 2022. We still see little glimmers of its impact today, which says to us that Sociability lived a good life. That’s about the best thing you can say about someone or something when you say good-bye.
hERE’S ONE OF MY STORIES, ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR SOCIABILITY AND NOW RETURNED TO ME TO SHARE WITH YOU.
Having resolve is different than making a resolution. While a RESOLUTION is an important starting point, having RESOLVE is part of the complex inner workings of motivation. A resolution is the stated goal. Resolve is what gets you there. Having resolve, we believe, is the kind of mental state which can lift us up from a year like 2020 to whatever lies ahead.
To unpack a heady theme like Resolve, we asked for help from a few of our very smart friends at the University of Texas at Arlington. They helped us understand that developing resolve as a learned ability takes some very specific skills, habits, and mindset, including:
TAKE THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH.
“Engineers embrace the opportunity to solve problems. A problem isn't something to avoid. It's something to tackle! We know that designing solutions is a cyclical process of learning: we learn about the problem; come up with multiple, potential solutions; analyze them and learn from what does/does not work; and then start the whole cycle over again. If something doesn't work, that's not the time to quit, it's just the start of the next cycle.
“So, I would say that an engineer's resolve comes from not being afraid of problems. We tackle them and know that even if we miss the first time, there's always a chance to learn why and tackle again. We expect failures to happen. We just want to be sure that we can control them instead of them controlling us. There's power in that.”
- Dr. Bonnie Boardman, Professor of Instruction and Undergraduate Program Director of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering
“THE MEASURE OF INTELLIGENCE IS THE ABILITY TO CHANGE.” - ALBERT EINSTEIN
“The creative process is a perfect analogy for tackling long term projects. In the beginning plans are made, an idea is hatched out, a vision begins to emerge. As the created thing is further developed, new paths begin to emerge and new opportunities come to light. We make decisions based on those insights, sometimes taking us in the wrong direction. Then we retreat a little and try again to create that vision we have on our head. Then we make more decisions along the way, repeating the process until we arrive at its end, and the piece comes to life. Long-term projects require adaptability, tenacity, and the willingness to solve problems along the way, but always with the end/goal in mind.”
- Matt Clark, Assistant Professor of Practice and Faculty Director at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Innovation
“JUST GONNA SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE, I SHAKE IT OFF, I SHAKE IT OFF.” – TAYLOR SWIFT
“Resolve is something our student athletes have to develop to succeed in every aspect of their lives: busy schedules, academics, training, practice, gameday performance, and everything else that comes with being a student athlete. Athletes learn to move on, meaning if you make a bad play or let your team down, you have to forget it and move on to the next play. In essence, athletes learn not to let one bad decision affect their ability to continue to perform at a high level. I think the same can be said for life: student athletes know how to resolve situations, to learn from individual mistakes without dwelling on them, and to move forward.”
- Jim Baker, Director of Athletics
HOW DO YOU EAT A PLATTER OF NACHOS GRANDE AT ABUELOS? ONE BITE AT A TIME.
“Projects always have a due date, in journalistic terms a deadline. Under deadline, journalism teaches you to work quickly (depending on your medium) without sacrificing quality. In daily life, prioritizing tasks or small goals helps us build our resolve to complete the overall project, just as a columnist or a reporter does to fully flesh out a story. A former news director of mine once said concerning deadlines, ‘Feel the fear. Then do it anyway.’”
- Lance Liguez, Broadcast Communication Specialist, Department of Communication
THE GUTS TO SAY IT, AND THE GUTS TO DO IT.
“My thoughts immediately turn to the Preamble of the Constitution. It's full of resolve, yearning into the future while being rooted in the needs of now. ‘We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...’ This phrase is bookended with a determination that they (we) have the power to make tomorrow what we want, and that we have a responsibility to future generations to do our very best right now.
“I tell my students (and my son), ‘begin as you mean to finish.’ Be resolved to doing what is required, both big and small, to reach your goal. You will create habits that feed a well-lived life.”
- Dr. Rebecca Deen, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
In Summer of 2020, we decided to take the idea of Sociability as a place and re-envision it as a lifestyle magazine. Just a few months later, here we are, thanks to the talent of our contributors and enthusiasm of our community. We can’t wait to see where it’s taking us, but one thing’s for sure: Resolve will help us get there.