In addition to witnessing the birth of my sons sometime in the next five to six weeks—a predictably life-changing event with uncertain but welcome effects—there are a number of things I want to accomplish in 2009:
1. Finish my thesis
2. Land a teaching position
3. Keep the family solvent
4. Let my friends and family know how important they are to me at least once a month (thanks Raul) (Some people should get this daily.)
5. Send out work/publish/get more interesting freelance assignments (I know, that’s three, but they’re closely related.)
6. Work out more (This classic is the one that always gets tossed first, but it needs to be here—I want to stay in shape for my family and my sanity. Two boys are going to kick my ass, and I want to be able to survive the beating.)
7. Keep blogging
8. Choose creation over destruction
The top five on that list are not optional at all, even with variable outcomes, so maybe they don’t really belong on a resolutions list, but I put them there to keep the focus tight.
May you all have a better year, and just in case, I’ll throw an old Churchill chestnut on the fire: Remember, “if you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Good luck!
And maybe tape a copy of that list to the fridge or something for motivation a few months from now.
Lists are cool.
I think 2009 is going to bring you the greatest joy you have even known. I really hope you stick to number 7 so that we can share it with you. Maybe you can blog while you are on the treadmill?
I am so on it with the lists, Wrath. I was way down with your list plurk. Ask Myg, I had a three-notebook list system running for a long time. I’m working on a one-notebook master system at the moment, not perfect, but effective.
And Chestnut, I am so looking to keep blogging. I should resolve to blog even when it’s kinda crappy. A wise man once told me “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.”