New Year's Resolutions: 2011

I'm not sure "resolutions" is quite the word I'm looking for, since I'm not sure I'm planning on resolving things as much as just trying to do them. But using the word "goals" seems a little too MBA-y for what I want to accomplish. And sometimes, there are things you just want to be able to do, but not necessarily keep doing. Like a triathlon. Currently, I don't want to do any, but I sort of feel like one might be enough. Sometimes there are resolutions/goals that are just a little embarrassing to admit to, because they serve no real purpose whatsoever. My first resolution/goal fits that description. But then, I think, I'd be unlikely to knock down someone else's goal, unless it was, say, to become a meth head or something, so whatever. If you don't like my goals, go make your own!

1. To do the splits. Yes, this is totally silly, but I once could do this, and I already have a crazy post-run stretching routine, so I figured, let's just add something else to it!

2. Write a novel. Novels have typically, what 300-400 pages. At a page a day, this should be doable. I'm not looking to write a good novel necessarily, just one. I'll work on good later.

3. Read the books on my reading list. This includes the books currently on my goodreads "currently reading" list, as well as these:

• The Mummy Case
• Feeling Good
• The Battle of the Labyrinth
• Lion in the Valley
• The Last Olympian
• The Deeds of the Disturber
• Loving Edith
• The Feast of Roses
• The Last Camel Died at Noon
• Easy Keeper
• Shadow Princess
• The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog
• Second Sight
• The Demigod Files
• The Hippopotamus Pool
• After Roy
• The Time Traveler's Wife
• The Guns of August
• The Blind Side
• The Great Gatsby
• A Perfect Mess
• The Complete Chronicles of Narnia (again)

That might seem like a lot, but it works out to something like three books a month, which I think should be totally doable.

4. Pay off my car. This is the easy one. I'll make my last payment in October, so I'm sure this one will get done!

5. Complete my three-part marathon training plan. The first part is to run the Carlsbad half in January. I signed up to run this one for a couple of reasons. First, halfs are fun distances. They're less than half the training of a full marathon, but you still get to eat! Second, I was hoping to prevent any weight gain during the holiday season by running a ton. And third, I needed to remember how to go about actually training for a race.

The second part is to run the Rock'n'Roll half in June (although various parties are trying to convince me to do the Triple Crown or run the RNR full or both). During training for this race, I'm actually going to pay attention to my diet. In general, during training for a race, you'll be unlikely to lose weight (assuming you're reasonably normal to begin with), because you're training, so you'll be hungrier than normal. Or at least hungrier than you are when you aren't training for an endurance event. But, people who do actually manage to eat a healthy diet during training can lose weight. I'm going to try this out. The big problem is that I already have a pretty fast metabolism, so I get raging-lion hungry, and even though I love fruit, there's only so much of it you can eat before you start to feel like, okay, but I need real food now.

The third part is to actually run the Portland Marathon in October. And then I'll be ready to conquer the world! Bwah-ha-ha-ha! (That's supposed to sound like evil maniacal laughter.)

6. This might actually fall under resolution 5, part b, but each month in 2010 I'm going to change/improve my diet. I figure, only having to do something for a month will make it feel less impossible than saying forever, and I'll be able to determine if the change is something I'll be able to handle long term. For example, in January, I'm going to give up eating candy. The one exception I'm going to make to this rule is Twizzlers while watching movies. Because giving that up would just be tragically sad in my world, and I see no reason to change your diet just to make yourself sad.

7. Find a writing job.  It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I don't love accounting, but I do love reading.  Except it's very rare to get hired to read things.  Even proofreaders and editors do more than just read.  I did get my first editing job a little while ago, but the employer and I didn't really see eye to eye as to what was a reasonable wage, or what was a reasonable amount of work for the wage being offered, so needless to say, that's over.  This is also separate from my write a novel goal, since a writing job will pay me and writing a novel will probably not.  At least not the first one.

8. Floss daily.  This is pretty self-explanatory, but suffice it to say, I don't enjoy flossing.  And I don't enjoy sitting in the dentist's chair for hours on end having root canals, even though my dentist is great.  But I do like to check things off a checklist, and this will probably be easier to do than #9, so I'll feel good about accomplishing this.  For the record, I do brush at least twice a day.  Captain America would probably leave me for a toothless cannibal before he'd sleep in the same bed with someone who never brushed. 

9. Tackle a nagging task.  This I actually stole from Gretchen Rubin over at The Happiness Project, mostly because it's a good one.  Sometimes the biggest trouble with a nagging task is just starting it.  And I have a big list of things that need to happen at some point.  Like I need to find an eye doctor. 

10. Blog regularly.  I now have two blogs, this one and 52 Saturday Nights, which you should go check out, and follow!  So I look cool! 

In the spirit of being a super-organizational-freak, I stole the idea of a resolution chart from The Happiness Project. And so I have a lovely checklist for all of the things I'm going to be accomplishing this year.  Or until January 7 when I get bored.  Which reminds me, you should check out this blog:

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html