New Year's Resolution

I say this every year. I am sure everyone says this every year...

I am going to stick to my resolutions this year!

Usually, I set my resolutions a bit too lofty. I can never stick with them. Like an old Post-It note, they lose their stickiness, fall off, and soon forgotten. This year I want to stick to things that I can accomplish. Goals I know I have within me to reach. They are normal things; go to church more, work out more, save more and spend less.

Resolutions, come to find out, are a very old tradition. Apparently, like 153 B.C. old. I found the history of making New Year's Resolutions kind of interesting. You can read what I read, here.

So, in the spirit of Janus, the mythical king of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances to the future, I will post my New Year's 2010 Resolutions here.

These are in no particular order of importance or difficulty to achieve or follow:

1. Church:
I usually go to Church on Sundays already. I enjoy it. I leave feeling better about the coming week. My resolution is more than just going to Church. I want to make a resolution to apply the lessons of Church into my daily life. In the past, I think about Church and living a faith-based life on Sunday, but not so much Monday through Saturday. This year, I would like my faith to play a more leading role in my daily life.

2. Business:
I own my business and have a reputation in the industry I work in to be a fairly decent businessman. In actuality, I do not feel like one. I owe the success of my business to the product I sell. Being such a great concept and product, it sells itself. In the past, I have simply rode the success wave put in motion by the product itself, not my own efforts for the most part. I do play a part, I just believe I can make a stronger impact. My resolution this year is to buckle down and focus on redeveloping my commitment to growing my business. This in itself can be its own blog and probably will be shortly.

3. Money:
I have never been the type of person that can 'pinch a quarter out of a nickle'. I have always wanted to be and looked up to those who can. Maybe I have never been too worried or too pressured to learn how. I am not saying I have always had a silver spoon or things handed to me. That is not the case. I earned everything I have, for the most part. Either way, I want to be more thrifty. That is my resolution. In the past, I have spent thousands of green back on bar tabs a month, bought expensive jeans when regular Wranglers will work, eat out instead of staying in, and an endless list of other examples. This year, before the wallet comes out, I want to ask myself the old saying, 'do I want this or need this?'

4. Health:
I am not a healthy person. I eat McDonalds like it is going out of style. I do not exercise. I have always been a little worried about my health but never concerned enough to make sacrifices to change anything in my life. In the past, I would exercise for a month or two max, then stop. It never took much effort or time, I just quit. I have no clue why. This year my resolution is to eat healthier and exercise more regularly. This is not to mean I am going to transform into a gym rat. I am the stark opposite of that and feel very out of place at any gym. What I mean to say is that I am going to chisel time out of my not-so-busy day to exercise some how, some way each day.

5. Friendships:
I have a few close friends and I know them fairly intimately. Everyone else seem to feel more like acquaintances than friends. There is a huge disparity between the strength of friendship I have with my close friends and everyone else. In the past, I mostly cared for myself first and foremost. Aside from my close friends, I have not made an effort to cultivate these acquaintances to become closer friendships. My resolution is to reach out to these acquaintances and get to know them better so that I can build a closer friendship with them.

6. Women:
I could write thousands of blogs on this problem in my life, books even. I think I know what I want in life; I think I know the type of woman I want in my life. Anyone that knows me would agree that, by now, I should know fairly clearly what I want. In the past, most of the women I met, I found something I liked about them; in short time, I found something I did not like about them as well. My problem has always been that once I find someone I like, I try to sell myself on the idea of that person. Maybe I create a false sense of romance in my mind. Who knows. Whatever it is, I think over the years I have lost some sense of emotional connection with the idea of love. All these failed attempts have made me simply not care and not try. My resolution this year is to refocus and try to understand the qualities in someone that would be a lasting fit for me, someone that could be a teammate in life. If someone does not fit that mold, I will let them know instead of trying to tell them the things they want to hear. I do that too often and I have learned over the years that can be much more hurtful.

7. Drinking:
I would not say I drink too much. I just think I should start the slow motion movement towards quitting completely. The real question I need to ask myself is, can I enjoy myself out and about with friends, and not drink? Will I feel out of place? In high school I used to smoke for a short time. Call it trying to be cool. I have no real reason to explain why I started. One day, I just thought about the negative money and health impacts on my life. That day I quit. Never looked back and never even thought about it since. I believe quitting drinking will be quite a bit more difficult.

8. Productivity:
Banks calls me lazy all the time. Maybe I am, maybe not. I do not feel like I am lazy. I have seen lazy people and that does not seem like me. In Banks' defense, I can be more productive. I could get up earlier. I could get more done. At the end of each day I could feel 'worked'. In the past, I have been a to-do list type of person. My problem is the items on the list might be too broad. My resolution is to itemize responsibilities and budget time more effectively. I am clueless as to how to do that exactly. But, I will blindly try.

9. Charity:
My faith tells me to be charitable. Help those who need help. Give to those who have less and are in need. I donate from time to time but never make it an important piece of my life. I think my time would be a more valuable donation and would make a larger impact in the long run. My resolution this year is to get involved with a charity where, instead of a check, I donate time and compassion for others.

10. Education:
Since finishing college, all I have done is learned the entertainment industry. That is not a total waste but not exactly a life long skill I want to use. I am about as qualified as a sixth graded when it comes to math. I suck at Trivia Pursuit, badly. Instead of 'knowing a little about a lot', I know a little about a little. My resolution is to get back on the education wagon. Maybe I will take a class on creative writing so the unfortunate souls reading this would be better off in the end.

***
I just read my Mother's resolutions. Her's seem a lot more saintly than mine. My Brother has none (not surprised).

At the end of this year I want to look back and say, 'this was a good year'. One can only hope that is what you say at the end of each year.

At a funeral I went to the other day, the preacher referred to life as a blossoming season. Something that comes and goes, but completely natural. It makes you think about your own season of life. Will it be vibrant and full of beautiful colors?

This year I want it to be...