New Year’s Rezzies.

I have been thinking pretty long and hard about some resolutions for this year. The only ones that were coming quickly to mind were jokes. Like: Resolved, I’m going to get as fat as possible in 2011. That way, if I don’t achieve my goal, I’m stoked, because I won’t be fat. If I do get as fat as possible, I could say that I finally kept my resolution.

Then I started coming up with things like “demonstrate more patience.” How in the world can something like that be quantified, though? I mean, do I keep tally marks from month to month for each time I catch myself groaning about someone’s (possibly my own)  incompetence– then if December has less tally marks than January, I succeeded? What if I encounter more incompetence in January than in December?

Finally, it dawned on me. I have fallen out of some pretty good habits, and into some less than good ones. Reversing those items will be a win-win. Instead of grinding away with the tally marks all year long, I can knock out all of the hard work in just a few months, while I force myself to get back on track. After that I can coast through the rest of the year by just doing maintenance while I reap the benefits. So, down to brass tacks:

1. Get more rest. During the winter it is so easy to just get sucked into all night projects. I mean, it is dark for more than half of the time that I’m awake each day. I have fallen into the habit of burning away the night working on projects that I invent for myself. Then I wake up feeling like crap. After a few days, my productivity starts to wane and I eventually just have to waste half of a weekend catching up on sleep. This is not only totally unproductive, but it also pisses off Reagan.. bad.
2. Stop eating just to break up the monotony. Even when I was burning through 90000000 calories a day by running, I only ate one meal per day. Partly because it was all I had time for. Partly because that was the only time that I was really hungry. In reality, I’m still only hungry once per day. But I have fallen into a stupid habit of eating just for an excuse to get away from my desk. I find myself eating second dinner at times.
3. Stop spreading myself too thin. Sometimes I will overbook myself, because I have a hard time saying no. Sometimes I can pull it off. Most of the time, at least one job ends up suffering. I think that if I slow down enough to devote my whole attention to whatever I’m working on, the results will definitely reflect it.
4. Start running again. Hi, I used to be a runner. Then the temperature dropped and it was dark a lot, so I stopped. Completely. Reagan got me a Garmin 410 for Christmas that is still sitting safely in it’s packaging. Starting this week, I’m going to run at least once per week until I can catch the fever again and dive back in headlong (probably when the temps start getting above 50, again).
5. Start shaving. I just threw that one in because it will be so easy, hahahaha. Sorry Mr. Beardo (and Reagan). It’s the end of the beard as we know it.

And, that is kind of a lot to tackle. But, here we go. Hold me accountable, amigos.