That's right, you heard me. New Year's Resolutions. Get ready for a blast from the past!
Well, it's only my second blog for Internet Social Hour and it looks like I'm
already going to twist things up. I had planned for the Saturday topic to be
the current week's topic, but because this week's topic is more or less a
sequel to a previous one, it seems odd to do it. So I'm going to go back and do
another old one and wait until next Saturday to do a new one. Deal with it,
kids.
The first week of actual topics was New Year's Resolutions
and this is actually something that I've needed for some time to write about. I
have a long-standing tradition regarding this and I didn't do it this year
because of some things that happened and I feel like I should explain and
rectify that as much as I can. I can't tell the whole story because part of it
isn't my story to tell, but I'll tell what I can and it will be enough.
I've never done NYRs, exactly, but most of my adult life
I've used that time of year to set goals for the coming year. It may sound like
a fine line, but to me there's a big difference between saying "I resolve
to..." and "This is the goal that I plan to achieve." One is
about looking to the past and trying to do better through sheer will power; the
other is about looking to the future and working to do good things through
careful planning and thoughtful action. It's also different from what most
people do because I make pretty specific statements rather than nebulous ideas.
This isn't currently one of my goals, but for example, rather than say "I
want to lose weight" I would say something like "I plan to lose at
least x pounds". Both the planning and the specificity just work a lot
better for me than the normal kind of resolutions.
The second thing I've done differently for many years is the
timing of my goals. I used to do them at the beginning of the year just like
most people, but I don't anymore. In 2006 I met a person who was to become a
good friend. He's a very private person so I won't say much about him except to
say that he had completely turned his life around a few years earlier, and the
anniversary of his change was February 1. His story was extremely inspiring to
me so, in order to honor it and him, I started making my new goals on that date
too. I've done that ever since.
For several years, I published a blog post every February 1
giving a progress report on my previous year's goals and outlining my goals for
the coming year. It's become such a tradition for me that several people will
ask me about it during January, and this year was no exception. But I didn't do
it this year.
It wasn't because I forgot or procrastinated or got lazy or
gave up on it or anything like that. Believe me, I felt that day come and go
and I thought about my goals a lot, but I just couldn't bring myself to publish
a post. The reason was that I hadn't talked to my friend for several months and
I missed him and it hurt too much to write the thing. There were several
reasons that we hadn't talked, none of which had anything to do with any bad
feelings between us. Some of the reasons were on my end and some were on his end,
but the one that made it the most painful for me was that he was suffering
through a bout of depression so deep that he couldn't even bring himself to communicate
with anyone beyond the absolute necessity.
Fortunately, he finally found his way out of the worst of it,
at least far enough that he can see a little light now, and we're talking
again. But by the time that happened, February 1 had long since come and gone,
so I figured it was too late for a post on this year's goals. I did intend to
write a post explaining what had happened, but I haven't gotten around to it
until now. So this is serving double duty. In addition to being my second post
for the Introvert Social Hour, it's also an explanation to my friends about
what happened this February. I hope you can all understand my feelings about
it.
I did set my goals for 2013, though, even though I
didn't post them, and I imagine you're probably curious to know what they were.
That's understandable. I'll list them with minimal commentary for now, and then tell
you more when I make my official goals post in February 2014. I hope
everyone will stick around for that! With no further ado:
1. Get back to the Wellness Center (my local gym)
regularly -- Not overly successful yet but there are pretty good reasons for
it. Soon to be more successful if all goes according to plan.
2. 90% passing on TAKS, 70% on EOC -- This is state
testing stuff. I had 100% pass last year, which is PHENOMENAL and just never
happens, so I want to do at least reasonably well this year. The EOC is
significantly harder than the TAKS. I won't know the results of either for several
weeks.
3. Get the house deep down super clean -- It's
reasonably clean but the plan was always to do the deep down stuff in the
summer, so that hasn't happened yet.
4. Write at least 25 blog posts this year -- This
one wasn't looking too good (though I was planning on writing a lot more during
the summer to make it happen) but with this new project it'll be easy. At two
per week for ISH plus all the normal ones I do, this will easily happen.
And that's about it. We'll see how it goes for the rest of the year!
For now, if you have questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.
I'd love to hear from you! And if you're interested in such things you can also
find me on Twitter.
Thanks again for reading! If you've somehow landed here from
some other source and haven't seen the videos that go along with this post,
they are:
And that's it from me on this Saturday. Best wishes! <3
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