New Year's Resolutions: To Do or Not To Do?

res·o·lu·tion/ˌrezəˈlo͞oSHən/

A firm decision to do or not to do something.

I love New Year's.  And I love making resolutions (I know, I'm a sick sick gal).  But anytime I can take an opportunity to start fresh, I do.

For this year, I made a list of projects/goals and actual resolutions I'd like to work on.  I realized some of the things I wanted to accomplish (such as finish poetry manuscript #3 & begin second eBook project with Annette) should actually be on my goal/project list and not resolutions (unless I planned to break them down into smaller pieces).

For me, a resolution is something small, doable (usually daily or weekly) and does not require another person to complete.  Publish book of poems is a goal/project.  Write a poem a day is a resolution.

I also realized my resolutions tend to fail if I don't have a plan for what I really need to do. I can write "less time on the computer" but what does that really mean?  Since I write on the computer, I want to be on there writing, but I do not want to be on the computer spending time on Facebook or reading celebrity news.

So you'll see on my resolutions, I took them a little further to remind myself what I really myself to do--

So here's what I came up with:

Goals/Projects:

1)  Finish poetry manuscript #3
2)  Begin eBook with Annette (my co-editor at Two Sylvias Press & Crab Creek Review)
3)  Complete Half-Marathon


Resolutions:

1)  Less internet / More Writing
    a)  Only check into Facebook on Fridays & my birthday (the only exceptions being if I have to post something for Crab Creek Review, Two Sylvias Press or Poets on the Coast or if I'm tagged in a post/photo.)
    b)  Only check or post to Twitter from phone 
    c)  Avoid MSN.com & any other timewasting website

2)  Draw Daily in my Sketch-a-Day journal

3)  Be very aware of what I purchase and/or bring into our home.  Choose to live with less.

That last one can be more specific, but basically, it's my reminder not to buy things I don't need, or buy things I think I need, but really don't.  I should get a little more specific on it.

~~~

I think the key to keeping resolutions going all year is to FORGIVE YOURSELF if you don't always do or remember to do your resolutions.

For example, I will probably check into Facebook absent-mindly on a Wednesday while on the ferry.  If I do this, I won't discard my whole resolution and call myself a failure, I remember ALL the extra time I've had off of Facebook for the days I got it right.

Let's say you choose to write a poem a day and you do this perfectly all through January then on February 8th decide you're tired of it or you don't do it for 2 months.  It doesn't mean it wasn't a success because you have 39 poems you wouldn't have had, had you not tried.

I expect to screw up and mess up.  I do it all the time.  I always start a new habit then forget it then start it back up again.  That's my life.  It's what being human is-- we are not perfect.  I have learned I am nowhere near perfect, sometimes not even on the same continent as perfect and I will make mistakes again and again.  Sometimes the same mistakes.

But on January 1, I start with a clean slate and see where 2012 will take me.   I may follow my resolutions perfectly, or I may wander on and off the path.  Either way, I'm gaining something from trying. I like getting my thoughts organized and the feeling as if I'm stepping onto the path of a new year.

Cheers to all of you!



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