When is a resolution, not a resolution
»From the life part of the brain.
It’s seven days into 2007 and I’m finally getting round to writing down my goals and resolutions for the year. I have four; they are quite modest. First, some thoughts…
I’ve always thought New Year’s resolutions were a silly concept. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for ambitious ideas, attaining the unattainable, doing the impossible, yada yada yada. But the thought of using the new year as an opportunity to create unrealistic and unreasonable (though super sexy) resolutions for myself just doesn’t appeal to me. And I know I’m not the only one who has repeated this pattern for the last 20+ years. To me, it’s more important to have goals that are constantly evolving and not something you redo simply because it’s a new year.
Anyway, on to the goals:
- Write for 30 to 45 minutes a day, no longer than an hour. It’s just a way to manage my thoughts for the day, possibly crystallizing them on this blog.
- Read more. Not just blogs, or websites, or programming books, but real books. The ones made from pulp. I want to churn out at least two or three books a month. I do this now with technical references, and it’s just not the same. Programming languages come and go but Shakespeare will always be Shakespeare.
- More triathlons. Last year, my girlfriend and I did a sprint triathlon together. We did it by going to the gym and swimming, biking, and running three to five times a week. I want to do more sprint triathlons.
- Make more mistakes. OK, I stole this one from a friend of mine. In our college days, we were extreme perfectionist programmers, to the point where it became impossible to release any software. It’s been awhile since our college days and we’ve both learned that being perfect isn’t exactly what life is about. It’s not even that much fun.
Only 358 days left.