I Resolve...
It's that time of year again* when many of us look at the clean slate of the new year and decide to make resolutions about ways we can improve ourselves. For some reason, despite the fact that I don't believe there's anything particularly "magical" about the first of the year and it's ability to create change in our lives, I've still been making New Years Resolutions for at least the last few years... I guess I can still hope that "this year" I'll be a better person than I was the year before.
*Actually, it was that time of year again two days ago - I'm just running a little behind schedule.
Unfortunately, I've been known to make some pretty ambitious Resolutions that didn't really get much beyond the first month** of the year. Take last year's resolutions for example:
• I want to read the Bible daily. This one I was actually able to stick with for the most part. Yes, I missed a few days, but overall I did pretty well!• I want to spend ten minutes a day cleaning my apartment. This is one of those ones that seems simple enough, yet I didn't really maintain my resolve and it didn't happen. C'mon, I'm there by myself most of the time - who have I got to impress?!?• I want to write 150 blog entries this (last) year. Er... if you take a look at the bar on the left, you'll see that I actually only wrote 68. Not even half. Hmph.• I want to do my part for the environment. This the one that probably changed my life the most this year - I've almost completely given up buying any kind of meat and I spent much of the spring and summer riding my bike to/from work. I'm more aware of the things I'm putting into my body and the impact they have on the environment, and I try to set an example of green living with the choices I make.• I want to start playing my violin on a regular basis. It's still not tuned.• I want to get married. Unfortunately, this one is still illegal, but I'm optimistic that it will become legal this year... maybe??**First week.
Based on the low success rate (less than 35%) of last year's resolutions, I've decided to make this year's a little more reasonable. Here are my resolutions for this year:
• I want to spend some time sketching/drawing/creating every day. This is something I've been thinking about for a couple of years but I've never formally made it a Resolution... which is good because I've not really been successful in accomplishing it. I guess I'm listing it this year because I'm hoping it will kick me in the butt to make good on it - and I'm open to being held accountable. For the record, this can be as simple as doing a single sketch in just a few seconds... the idea is that I want to keep my skills sharp and I really do believe that the more I draw, the more inspired I will become. And I'll post some of what I come up with on here - when I have something worth posting!• I want to post a blog entry (almost) every day. After my severe lack of success with a Resolution like this last year, why would I decide to not only include it again, but double my expectations? Because I think it's possible. One of the challenges I've met the last couple of years is that I've wanted every single blog entry to be poignant and the result was that single entries could take me days to put together. That's a lot of pressure! What's more, if I missed more than a few days, it became very daunting to try to revisit it again. The reality is that when I was a missionary, I was able to post something new almost every... I just made it simple and posted whatever was on my mind. READER BE WARNED: This means you may end up finding some pretty hum-drum stuff on here... but I do intend to post meaty things, too. So stay tuned!
That's it. If I stop at just two Resolutions and I'm successful with just one of them then I've exceeded my performance from last year (50%). Of course I'm hopeful that I'll be successful with both, but we can talk about that next year.
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