New Year's Resolutions
OK, Christmas is over, so now
it’s time to write down your resolutions for 2003. No, it’s not
enough to think them up and leave them in your noggin – that allows for
“online editing,” forgetfulness, denial, all those strategies we
use to avoid any potential for trying to make some improvement in us and our
lives.
For many years I would sit
down a couple of days before the new year, create a list of really boring
statements about my intended goodness in the next twelve months. Statements
like
“Get More Sleep,”
“Lose Weight,” and “Exercise More” showed up on these
early attempts dedicated to failure, and more often than not, the piece of paper
disappeared in the frenetic clean up around the house (also on the list but
without the adjective frenetic), and rarely turned up
again.
Time, which seems endless
when one has accumulated little of it on life’s odometer, suddenly
becomes as scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth when your bones begin to
tell you that your odometer is beginning to wobble. If you don’t receive
that message clearly, you will get it when you hear a colleague who is no longer
working regularly (such a nicer way to put it than “he’s retired,
you know”) say something like, “You know, I thought when I ceased
crushing grapes in my chosen vineyard, I would have more time, but – by
golly [or some equally assertive phrase of emphasis] I just don’t seem to
have any time at all.”
Further
investigation is needed as to whether he is spending his afternoons organizing
his collection of trout flies by color, size, weight, region, and history of
success, and entering it into an inheritable data base, polishing the Christmas
tree ornaments before placing them into stout plastic boxes filled with crushed
tissue paper, or writing a very short book on “Discernible Political
Philosophies of Contemporary American Politicians” or a long book called
“Family Anecdotes To Bore My Descendants To
Tears.”
As time shortens, it
should be well spent. Period.
Last
year, I sat down and wrote out my goals for 2002 for such categories as work,
health, travel and stuff I need to do around the house. I slipped the sheet
into one of those plastic sleeve thingies and kept it on the top of my desk.
The only goal not achieved will be the renovation of the upstairs bathroom, and
that should be done by March of
’03.
So now I have a new
sheet, well two actually - one is for 2003, and the second is a preliminary
list for 2004.
I’m getting so
organized, I think I’d better go lie down for a
bit.
Posted: Mon - November 24, 2003 at 04:39 PM