In email chat with a co-worker (not so much a friend as a learning experience for me) today I asked if he had any New Year’s resolutions. “Not really”, he said “I mean, I have some goals for the year but not any resolutions”. And that got me thinking, as I often do this time of year, about the whole concept of the New Year’s resolution. It’s the butt of many a joke. I think some people half-heartedly make them without really believing they’ll stick to them… or maybe they do, I don’t know… but I think that this year, instead of resolutions, I’m going to set some goals for myself, hang them on the wall next to my desk and check them off one by one as I complete them in 2008. I like lists. They make me feel accomplished somehow.
Happy holidays y’all, xoxoxo.
December 27, 2007 at 5:14 am
I always break resolutions, but I’m with you, Marianne. I’ve got goals this year… goals and timeframes! Maybe a calendar, with daysquares big enough to write in, would be a good thing to have. And maybe even someone to share those goals with. Not so much for the sake of accountability, but for someone to encourage me about the goals, not berate me with them. That could also be a good thing. A gentler New Year… with the realization that the newness is every day.
December 27, 2007 at 11:09 am
Let me be the pessimist here. I think that it is a good idea, BUT… What if you don’t make those goals. X, what if you don’t meet your time frame? Is it going to hurt? I am all about the goals, you both know that I am — And I may just jump on the bandwagon too… Make that list and throw it up on my desk. But it’s about growth and learning…. Don’t let the stress of ITS NOT HAPPENING bring you down… and if you think it might… well then… rethink it.
December 28, 2007 at 12:23 am
I think making a list of pie-in-the-sky unattainable goals is bad, but some practical, doable goals are always good to have lying around. I need the timeframe so I don’t make goals that will get accomplished “someday.”
So by April, when I have cured cancer while on my first space flight, I can calmly mark those two things off my goal list. No big deal.