Write Back Weekend "Promises, Promises"
As I said when I originally posted this week's TITMT question, I was doing so with hesitation. After all, rehashing resolutions unfulfilled can be downright depressing. This, I believe, is precisely why many of you didn't participate. Then again, knowing that there are personal goals you want to accomplish and talking about how you suck at accomplishing them all at once are two very different things.
On Write Jerry's New Year's blog post I mentioned that I don't really buy into the resolution thing all that much either. The whole "January 1st" thing is a bit heavy handed if you ask me. I say if you want to change something, you'll change it. No excuses, no expectations. No date on the calendar can "change" that.
Then again there's something to be said about the promise of new beginnings. Every so often it's good to set and reassess personal goals for yourself. If you look at it that way, having a long list of things to accomplish can suddenly turn into something reassuring. The more you have yet to do, the more jazzed you are about living long enough to do them. Once the list of things you've accomplished becomes longer than what you still want to do, you might feel a sense of fulfillment, but then again, you might feel overwhelmed at where to go next. It's in the spaces in between that slackers everywhere can rejoice in their periods of procrastination.
Tackling my six in '06 list was easy. All I did was swipe what I said from last year's post, only I added notes about how well (or not well as the case may be) I did at achieving my goals.
Six Things I Wanted to Accomplish in '06
1. Get paid for writing something, somehow, someway. Blogging is fun y'all but money is even funner.
This remains "the dream". The impossible dream. I have a confession to make. While I'm proud of all that AOGB has become, I still feel that I can't live up to my own expectations. I want to take my writing to the next level, but year after year I remain clueless as to how to achieve that. If I am being technical, I did achieve this this year as someone was kind enough to contact me about sponsoring my blog in '07. So thank you George. In some small way, you've helped move this dream towards a reality.
2. Be more positive. Oh who am I kidding? I'll never be able to do that.
Again, this is something I continue to work on everyday. But I'm positive I can do it if I put my mind to it. See, I'm doing it already.
3. Read more books that inspire movies than see movies that inspire books.
Ok, now this one is totally not my fault. I want to read more books, but I just don't have the time I need to find the books to read or to read the books I find. But this is definitely not one of those goals that I just put on there because it's something I think I should do. It's a goal I really do strive to achieve, I just have a better chance at achieving it during the summer when I have a lot more free time and much less of a change at falling asleep while trying to read.
4. Try not to be so sensitive about what others think about me. I think that's a good one. What do you think?
Jewel once wrote a song called I'm Sensitive and the lyric went, I'm Sensitive and I'd like to stay that way. Well I'm with Jewel, except for the like to stay that way part. I hate when things get to me and other people know it. It's a form of weakness that I work hard to protect. If I wouldn't want to eliminate my sensitivity all together though. For me, sensitivity shows you're passionate, too.
5. Travel to somewhere exotic...even if it's the international section of the supermarket.
Well I do eat lots of exotic foods, does this count? Other than that, the only place I traveled this year was to Florida but hey, at least I traveled. I'm definitely making progress!
6. Ride on a unicorn. What? I had to put something truly unattainable on there. It offsets the other five nicely, making them look much more feasible, no?
Ok, so I have a hard time being serious sometimes, ok? Sue me.
Seven Things I Want to Accomplish In '07
1. Get paid for writing something, somehow, someway.
I continue to keep this goal at the top of my priorities list. It's not something I'm giving up on, but it is also a great source of frustration. Then again anything worth getting wasn't easy, right?
2. Work out more with weights.
Lucky for me I don't have a problem with willpower or self-discipline. If I say I'm going to do something, the chances are great that I am going to do it. But I also like to do something that yields definite results. I exercise on a regular basis and I'm not overweight, but I'm not nearly as regular about incorporating weights into my routine. The reasons are simple and obvious. One, weights are HEAVY. The other is that while I do work out with weights, and I have done so pretty consistently in the past, I never can achieve the tone the weights are supposed to help me achieve. So something frustrating coupled with lukewarm results makes me very reluctant to practice till I make it perfect. I'm sure there's something I'm doing wrong, unless of course I've got some weird and rare genetic disorder that prevents me from toning indefinitely.
3. Travel to someplace new.
Notice I took out the exotic part. This way if I travel anywhere at all, I covered this one. I do want to travel more. There is just so much to see in this world that I hate the idea that I'm putting seeing things off unnecessarily. If not now, when?
4. Take more pictures.
See how I'm thinking ahead here? I figure if I could somehow manage to travel more,t the taking pictures thing would take care of itself. Part of the reason, after all, I don't take pictures a lot is because I don't do a lot of things that warrant taking pictures of. I figure traveling though, could change all of that.
5. Work on being more patient with my students.
While I do feel I've accomplished a lot teaching wise in a short period of time, there is always room for improvement. One area I would love to work on is becoming more patient with my students. It's so easy to lose it when you have twenty-one kids attacking you all at once. It's also easy to lose it when some children make the same mistakes over and over with seemingly no remorse or regret. Of course I try to keep into perspective they are just kids but it's hard sometimes. I have to admit that. Not to mention the fact that getting stressed out over them can't be good for my health, either.
6. Work on living in the moment.
Speaking of stress, I've always been a worrier. I worry so much I worry that I worry too much. I worry even when I'm not aware I'm worrying. I say this because I wear a mouth guard while I sleep, to keep me from clenching. Why am I clenching? Because I'm worrying, about something, anything. I know in theory that worrying about things that haven't happened yet serve no good purpose. Now if only I could send this message to the rest of my brain.
7. Make a conscious effort to write '07 on everything sooner rather than later.
Every list I decided needs at least one silly and easy to achieve resolution. Besides writing the new year down is a lot harder to remember to do than most of us really care to admit. It could easily be '06 until way into May if I let that happen. But that would mean I was technically living in the past, and I wouldn't want to do that. As one of my favorite quotes once said, "The past is like a foreign country. They do things differently there."
On Write Jerry's New Year's blog post I mentioned that I don't really buy into the resolution thing all that much either. The whole "January 1st" thing is a bit heavy handed if you ask me. I say if you want to change something, you'll change it. No excuses, no expectations. No date on the calendar can "change" that.
Then again there's something to be said about the promise of new beginnings. Every so often it's good to set and reassess personal goals for yourself. If you look at it that way, having a long list of things to accomplish can suddenly turn into something reassuring. The more you have yet to do, the more jazzed you are about living long enough to do them. Once the list of things you've accomplished becomes longer than what you still want to do, you might feel a sense of fulfillment, but then again, you might feel overwhelmed at where to go next. It's in the spaces in between that slackers everywhere can rejoice in their periods of procrastination.
Tackling my six in '06 list was easy. All I did was swipe what I said from last year's post, only I added notes about how well (or not well as the case may be) I did at achieving my goals.
Six Things I Wanted to Accomplish in '06
1. Get paid for writing something, somehow, someway. Blogging is fun y'all but money is even funner.
This remains "the dream". The impossible dream. I have a confession to make. While I'm proud of all that AOGB has become, I still feel that I can't live up to my own expectations. I want to take my writing to the next level, but year after year I remain clueless as to how to achieve that. If I am being technical, I did achieve this this year as someone was kind enough to contact me about sponsoring my blog in '07. So thank you George. In some small way, you've helped move this dream towards a reality.
2. Be more positive. Oh who am I kidding? I'll never be able to do that.
Again, this is something I continue to work on everyday. But I'm positive I can do it if I put my mind to it. See, I'm doing it already.
3. Read more books that inspire movies than see movies that inspire books.
Ok, now this one is totally not my fault. I want to read more books, but I just don't have the time I need to find the books to read or to read the books I find. But this is definitely not one of those goals that I just put on there because it's something I think I should do. It's a goal I really do strive to achieve, I just have a better chance at achieving it during the summer when I have a lot more free time and much less of a change at falling asleep while trying to read.
4. Try not to be so sensitive about what others think about me. I think that's a good one. What do you think?
Jewel once wrote a song called I'm Sensitive and the lyric went, I'm Sensitive and I'd like to stay that way. Well I'm with Jewel, except for the like to stay that way part. I hate when things get to me and other people know it. It's a form of weakness that I work hard to protect. If I wouldn't want to eliminate my sensitivity all together though. For me, sensitivity shows you're passionate, too.
5. Travel to somewhere exotic...even if it's the international section of the supermarket.
Well I do eat lots of exotic foods, does this count? Other than that, the only place I traveled this year was to Florida but hey, at least I traveled. I'm definitely making progress!
6. Ride on a unicorn. What? I had to put something truly unattainable on there. It offsets the other five nicely, making them look much more feasible, no?
Ok, so I have a hard time being serious sometimes, ok? Sue me.
Seven Things I Want to Accomplish In '07
1. Get paid for writing something, somehow, someway.
I continue to keep this goal at the top of my priorities list. It's not something I'm giving up on, but it is also a great source of frustration. Then again anything worth getting wasn't easy, right?
2. Work out more with weights.
Lucky for me I don't have a problem with willpower or self-discipline. If I say I'm going to do something, the chances are great that I am going to do it. But I also like to do something that yields definite results. I exercise on a regular basis and I'm not overweight, but I'm not nearly as regular about incorporating weights into my routine. The reasons are simple and obvious. One, weights are HEAVY. The other is that while I do work out with weights, and I have done so pretty consistently in the past, I never can achieve the tone the weights are supposed to help me achieve. So something frustrating coupled with lukewarm results makes me very reluctant to practice till I make it perfect. I'm sure there's something I'm doing wrong, unless of course I've got some weird and rare genetic disorder that prevents me from toning indefinitely.
3. Travel to someplace new.
Notice I took out the exotic part. This way if I travel anywhere at all, I covered this one. I do want to travel more. There is just so much to see in this world that I hate the idea that I'm putting seeing things off unnecessarily. If not now, when?
4. Take more pictures.
See how I'm thinking ahead here? I figure if I could somehow manage to travel more,t the taking pictures thing would take care of itself. Part of the reason, after all, I don't take pictures a lot is because I don't do a lot of things that warrant taking pictures of. I figure traveling though, could change all of that.
5. Work on being more patient with my students.
While I do feel I've accomplished a lot teaching wise in a short period of time, there is always room for improvement. One area I would love to work on is becoming more patient with my students. It's so easy to lose it when you have twenty-one kids attacking you all at once. It's also easy to lose it when some children make the same mistakes over and over with seemingly no remorse or regret. Of course I try to keep into perspective they are just kids but it's hard sometimes. I have to admit that. Not to mention the fact that getting stressed out over them can't be good for my health, either.
6. Work on living in the moment.
Speaking of stress, I've always been a worrier. I worry so much I worry that I worry too much. I worry even when I'm not aware I'm worrying. I say this because I wear a mouth guard while I sleep, to keep me from clenching. Why am I clenching? Because I'm worrying, about something, anything. I know in theory that worrying about things that haven't happened yet serve no good purpose. Now if only I could send this message to the rest of my brain.
7. Make a conscious effort to write '07 on everything sooner rather than later.
Every list I decided needs at least one silly and easy to achieve resolution. Besides writing the new year down is a lot harder to remember to do than most of us really care to admit. It could easily be '06 until way into May if I let that happen. But that would mean I was technically living in the past, and I wouldn't want to do that. As one of my favorite quotes once said, "The past is like a foreign country. They do things differently there."
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