Like most, I made some New Year’s resolutions this year. Also like most, I’ve not done too well at keeping them. One problem, other than my complete lack of willpower, is that I didn’t really tell anyone about them. Perhaps public accountability can make up for my lack of motivation, so here are my reaffirmed resolutions
Number one, I want to lose some weight. My goal is to lose twenty pounds by the end of the year. We’ve been doing pretty good at going to the gym lately, so hopefully that along with reducing my caloric intake will at least get me started.
Number two, I want to be a better friend. I know this is a lot more “touchy-feely” than what I’ve posted in the past, but I want to commit to this. I can’t really say I’ve made a true “friend” since probably 1999. Sure, I’ve met some folks I have a great time talking with, but unfortunately I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve spent time with them outside of work. As to my friends from my college years, I don’t talk to or see most of them very often. I regret both situations. My goal is to improve my worth as a friend by being more giving and more concerned for others, and the hope is that strengthened relationships will follow as a result.
Finally, I’d like to spent as much time as possible with my family, meaning both my wife/son family and my parents/grandparents/siblings family. For the former, one thing I plan to do is camp at least one weekend a month all season. When camping, there’s no choice but to spend time together! For the latter, I’m going to make a concerted effort to visit them more often.
Well, having written these out, I’ve realized I don’t really have a great plan for keeping these goals. If these were for work, they wouldn’t pass muster (not specific, not measurable, etc.), However, at this point, it’s the best I can come up with.
For me, the whole concept of “new Year’s Resolutions is pretty lame. Just because it’s a new calendar year doesn’t mean that a person should suddenly realize that there are things that they feel they need to work on. And most people don’t keep them anyway, so it’s just another thing to feel bad about falling behind with. As if we don’t have enough of those already…
But anyway, I can empathize with you on almost all three of these resolutions.
It seems like the past few years I’ve gotten really out of shape. Not ‘fat’ or ‘overweight’ really, just very blah. I have put on a bit of extra poundage, but for my build it doesn’t really show all that much. For me though, I feel like I am getting fat, and I had sure as hell do something before it’s too late. Sadly, I don’t have any ambition at all to achieve this. Gyms are expensive, a hassle to go to, and working out is the type of thing that really does not work well with my mental state. I have to see progress in things that I do, or else I end up getting really frustrated at the perceived slow progress and stop. Not to mention my crazy work schedule does not give me any time. So, don’t really know how to fix that one.
As far as making friends, well, I’ve never really been that great at it either, and most of the people I talk with are people that I’ve been friends with since college or high school (although the high school thing is pretty much over, as I rarely see those people anymore). My personality is not one to go out and find people. I mean, sure there are some dudes at work that are kind of cool enough, but
Family. This one is a bit easier for me. My parents are still nearby, I have a decent amount of my crap still there, so I’m usually there once every other weekend. But my two brothers, and extended family, that’s another story. My older bro is out in DC, and my younger bro is running around crazy trying to get his Massage license all done AND work at the same time. I would love to be able to take some time off, go and visit my strange uncles out west, and do stuff with them. One of them is a teacher at the Univ. of Nebraska, and most times during the summer he takes his students out to the western part of Nebraska to troll around the rivers out there for fish. It might be interesting to tag along one of these times before he up and reties cause he’s too old to do it anymore (he is almost 60 now I think). My other uncle lives in Colorado, and right after I graduated college, I went out there to visit and went skiing with my dad. We very memorable, and would like to do that again. But again, all of this depends on me having like, a school long type of summer, which is not something I can do right now. So, this one as well will have to wait for sometime in the future as well…
Didn’t mean to hijack this, but I guess I wanted to let you know you aren’t alone in these three ‘resolutions’. Later.
Thanks for the comments! Say, you sound like someone who needs a blog of his own (not that you’re not welcome to say whatever you want here). Let me know if you want any help.