Working To Be Resolute in 2012

Every year I ponder whether I should put together my New Year's Resolutions. I sit down with pen and paper and come up with the usual, "Lose weight," "write every day," "exercise more," etc. You know the drill. Those vague resolutions that eventually fail and then make you feel bad about yourself? We've all been there, right?

One thing I found extremely difficult to keep up with was the "exercise more" especially when I lived in New York. It's hard to get out and exercise when it's snowing and blowing and I was never much on team sports -- which I consider a gym to be. 

As for the "write every day" I do that because I write for a living; what I need to do is be more specific in my "writing" resolution. How about something like, "take at least 30 minutes a day to write something for my own edification or for publication, etc." This goal is more concrete.

Because I am deadline motivated, I found a publisher that was working on a Christmas anthology and in October I set myself a "resolution" to write a story and hopefully get published by the end of the year. I set time aside, wrote my romance and it was accepted! Publication was a goal I set and achieved it. Can it be considered a resolution because I made it spur of the moment? In October? In my mind, yes. 

Still, in order to make many resolutions that I come up with, I need to first incorporate better time management skills into my life. Set a more firm office (even though I work from home) schedule. Stop being tempted to check email from the iPad or Smartphone when I'm lying in bed. Live in the moment -- again, that could mean stop checking email when I am with friends and family. 

I truly believe the pressure of making huge changes in your life simply because it's January 1 is daunting. Why not pick a time during the year that truly motivates you -- rather than the time of year when everyone is resolving to do XYZ? 

I do want to exercise more (what does that mean? I have to be more concrete with that detail); I will write at least 30 minutes a day purely for myself. 

There is a new site I discovered called Schemer and I do have a few schemes in there that I hope to accomplish this year. Is a scheme any different from a resolution? Probably not. Will I be held accountable by anyone other than myself? Not likely. 

Are you a resolution setter? 

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