I know it is a couple of days late, but it is hard to think about resolutions when you are traveling! On the way back from Ohio, I heard a statistic on the radio that said over 50% of people don’t even bother with New Years Resolutions anymore. The primary reason for not making a resolution was because they knew they would not succeed. That seems kind of sad, doesn’t it? Yet another old tradition that is going by the wayside, as society changes for the better(?). What bothers me most, is that I thought New Year’s resolutions were the one time a year where everyone had the chance to think about making some small changes in their lives for the better. Hopefully making them better or healthier people, or maybe even doing something that would make the world a better place.
Without resolutions, when does this happen? I don’t think the world is really into continuous improvement, something that I take very seriously in my professional life, but only recently have thought about from a personal level. I thought that I would use this opportunity to actually state my improvement goals in the form of some resolutions.
- Be a better father, husband, and brother
- This one is kind of hard to put in words, but my boys are getting older and I need to make sure that I “walk the talk”. They are great kids, but I need to keep re-enforcing my beliefs and morals, I only have a few more years before they are out on their own!
- Be more thoughtful and supporting as a husband. It will be 17 years of marriage this year, I know there are lots of things I can to better for the next 17 years.
- Talk to my sister more. We get along fine, but we just never seem to take the time to talk, this should be easy to fix!
- Try to do better on my heath and fitness.
- I actually want to lose 10 more pounds, based on the number of magazine, radio, and television commercials I’ve seen this past week, I’m not alone!
- I have been running about 2.5 miles a day for about 18 months. I also do a few sets of sit-ups and push-ups… I plan to keep this up.
- I should give up soda, but I don’ think I can do that!!! But, I will work on eating better, better foods and sticking to smaller portions.
- Learn, Play, Blog
- This sounds kind of funny, but I find blogging is actually very constructive and really helps build your writing skills. I created about a hundred plus entries on my work blog last year, which I will now start creating here instead.
- Blogging about your experiences helps cement the concepts in your mind and also makes them available to others to lean from. It is a win-win situation!
- I setup home.beilers.com in my office on an Ubuntu box last summer. It was a great learning experience and a lot of fun. I plan to move this blog to a hosted site so I don’t have to be so dependent on my box. I also would like to setup a real site for my wife’s company.
- Read More
- I am not much of a reader, it seems to take so much time. I have become an avid RSS reader, reading feeds on my cell phone is such a convenience and makes reading much more possible for me.
- I finished a monster book last year, Atlas Shrugged, what a great book. I can’t wait for the movie! I need to start reading some smaller ones… stay tuned!
- Update my resume
- Kind of obvious!
I hope my goals (resolutions) spark something in you as well…. I pray that this year will be less negative (the financial crisis) than 2008, and that we can all get back on the road to recovery. Happy New Year!
