According to Britain's Guardian newspaper, 78 percent of New Year's resolutions fail. Apparently, the key to successful resolutions is to break them down into manageable steps to be achieved throughout the year, and to "(tell) friends about goals... and keep a diary of progress."
Now if that doesn't sound like an invitation to blog, I don't know what does!
By the way, the Guardian wisely adds "if you are trying to lose weight, it's not enough to stick a picture of a model on your fridge and fantasize about being slimmer." Good to know.
Armed with this sage advice, I have compiled a fresh list of New Year's resolutions confident in the knowledge that I'll achieve more than the 60 percent I did of my 2009 New Year's Resolutions. (For the record, the 2009 'successes' were the "support a charity" and "earn enough to feed my son" resolutions. The 50/50s were the "greener household" and "one new thing per month". The total failure was the "finish 5 chapters of my book".)
So...no "go to the gym" or "drink less" nonsense here...just some quality resolutions to live by in 2010. Your turn!
New (or Updated) 2010 New Year's Resolutions
1. Stuff enough money under the mattress to feed the family while also fitting in vacations to Hawaii (spring), Italy (summer) and Ian's bachelor weekend (autumn).
2. Finish 12 (2007) 5 (2010 & 2009) chapters of my book, Statendam, and make them available here and find a literary agent who might help me get the thing published.
3. Try one new thing per month, starting with: (Feb) Enter the BBC Wildlife Travel Writing Awards, (March) Go Gray Whale Watching with the Oceanic Society (April) Attend SF Symphony's Chaplin Movie Performance (May) Visit the Farallon Islands (June) NASCAR in Sonoma! (July) Visit Florence, Italy (Sep) Finally get to a 49ers game...more to come!
4. Find a baby-sitter for William. In nine months, Emma and I have spent ONE night apart from William, not counting when family have visited. Clearly, we won't have much chance of accomplishing (3) without some childcare! (recommendations welcomed!)
And...that'll just about do it for 2010, I think.
p.s. I know what you're thinking: "He's NEVER going to write that book!" (I did start it in 2005)...but 'manageable steps' is my motto this year along with "Monday night is writing night". Just you wait and see!
I think if you're going to try one new thing a month, you should start with January, not February.
Posted by: ian | January 04, 2010 at 12:30 AM
I chose February for good reason: I spent all my January money on the Christmas holidays, so my new thing for January is to go a whole month without trying something new!
Posted by: David | January 04, 2010 at 07:28 PM
So how did Monday writing night go?
Posted by: ian | January 04, 2010 at 11:54 PM
I re-wrote the first six pages of Chapter 2, and feel pretty good about the outcome actually. At this rate, I should have the whole thing wrapped up by as early as 2014.
Posted by: David | January 05, 2010 at 10:12 PM