I have this way of putting off New Year's resolutions.
For starters, I'm an against-the-grain type of person, and why bother doing resolutions in January when you can do them in April. (Hey, last year I didn't post my resolutions until May, so today's blog post actually represents progress.)
Secondly, I feel like New Year's resolutions always seem to be designed for short-term gratification. Nobody ever carries out resolutions throughout the year. New Year's resolutions are the one-night stands of self-improvement. I'd rather work on self-improvement that has long-term potential.
Lastly, over the past few months I've continued to gradually emerge from a turbulent period in my life, and I have more time to blog and self-reflect.
Anyway, for the most part I hit on my goals/resolutions last year. Hopefully this year I will be as successful. Here goes:
SAVE MORE MONEY: OK, goals should be more specific than this, I know, but I'm very private about many things in my life, my financial situation being one of them, and I imagine you can understand that. I do have a dollar figure in mind as far as how much I would like to sock away. We'll leave it at that. I'll give you a Yes or No in December or early January.
FIND A NEW DOCTOR, SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT AND GO: I haven't been to my doctor in a few years and never will again, because unfortunately since my last physical he's retired. Which means I now have the daunting task of figuring out what doctors in my area are taking new customers and accept my health insurance (which I just had to change because last year I was one of three people in the whole company that had a certain plan and it got axed, so I had to choose a new one), and then go. For all I know, I could be dead -- in which case I can stop doing this annual resolution/goal thing -- but I really should find out.
DO "THE DOUBLE" AT THE GYM AT LEAST THREE TIMES: "The Double" = going to the gym on Mondays and participating in back-to-back classes of Group Kick (essentially, shadow kickboxing) and Group Power (essentially, cardio weightlifting) from 5pm-7pm. One of the class instructors there, Chantal, has been a great motivator for me as I commit to getting back into shape, and she keeps trying to get me to do The Double. And I'm always too winded after an hour of kickboxing to stay for Power, or I can't get to the gym in time for Kick and have to settle for just Power. Even if I can successfully build up my stamina, there will be times I have prior commitments and can't make both. But I will try to pull this off more than once.
BLOG ON A WEEKLY BASIS: When I started this blog I was posting virtually every day, sometimes more than once a day. When I started this blog, I had also just been laid off from the 2010 Census, which began one of the lowest periods of my life. Obviously my pace has slowed down considerably as I rejoined the world of the gainfully employed. But I enjoy blogging and want to pick up the pace again. When I was down during my jobless stretch, blogging was sometimes what prevented me from thinking/acting upon very dark thoughts about my life. Just because I have a job again doesn't mean I don't have my low moments, that writing could help me work through.
FINISH MY NOVEL: Yes, you will recall this was a goal from last year. And yes, as I advanced at my company I ran myself a little ragged and it crimped my plans to work on my novel to a large extent. I have a finished draft, but as I revise many continuity issues arise and I have other things to smooth out. I've surprised myself recently by dusting it off again. I really want to get this to the point where I can have some people whose writing I admire and respect take a look at it and give me serious feedback.
That is all. I'll see you sometime around Dec. 31 (though I'll blog again next week).
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