The view from my window, New Years Day.
Okay, so it’s time to sit down and come up with the New Years Resolutions. I do this every year and often with far more serious intent than most people bring to the task. But every time I get to the end of the year, and I think about the things I managed to accomplish, they very seldom have anything to do with what I set out to do in the first place.
Some of the things I managed in 2007 would have made great resolutions had I actually thought of them and written them down this time last year.
1. I got my email under control
My inbox is empty, and it remains empty. When you send me an email, I figure out what to do with it or about it, and then I file it away. Every day ends completely clear. I also, you may have noticed, have been clearing out the contacts database in my Gmail account. Everyone who’s in there received a mass seasonal email from me, explaining what I was doing. Every bounced address was deleted from the database (400+ messages) and every reply I received got a personal response (again, 400+ messages). Yeah, it was time consuming, but it’s done now. From here on out, it’s maintenance.
2. I employed a PA
I would never have thought of that this time last year, but it makes perfect sense. Shelley’s been brilliant and my life runs far more smoothly as a result.
3. I started this blog
I’ve been blogging for years, but I’ve always wanted my own domain, a decent site that I like the layout of, and some pages of extra content about what I do, the other people in my life and who I am. Turns it into a narrative with characters, rather than just some guy’s random thoughts about the world.
4. I travelled rather a lot
I would never have thought I’d get to as many places as I did in 2007. Had I come up with it, that would have made a great resolution this time last year.
5. I actually became quite organised
This one will astonish pretty much anyone who ever met me during the first 35 years of my life. I’m not saying I’m a whirlwind of efficiency now, nor that I keep the house and my office spotless, that everything I say I’m going to do gets done, or that I’m never late to anything – but comparatively speaking, the difference is marked. I have an actual system and it actually works. The wheels fall off occasionally, because life is interesting and unpredictable, but it’s straightforward enough to just pop them back on and continue.
I have no idea what last year’s resolutions actually were. I know I made some, and even wrote them down because I always do, but who knows where or what I wrote. No doubt, they would have had something to do with learning a language, picking up the guitar again, losing a bit of weight, reading X books per month, listening to X albums per day, saving £X per payday, going to the gym X times a week and setting up other routines of that nature. Some of that stuff happened some of the time, but I certainly didn’t stop being irregular old me. And stopping yourself from actually being yourself is kind of what some of these sorts of things are designed to make happen.
I’m pretty sure the year I stopped smoking (2002) was the one year I didn’t bother resolving to quit.
So this year’s resolutions are not going to be about routines and goals. Those don’t seem to work for me. This year it’s just going to be about improvement in a general sense. All the stuff that was good in 2007, I’ll try and do more of that. All of the stuff that was bad in 2007, I’ll try and minimise.
As the song goes, ‘Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative’. Sounds like sense to me.
I want to do more interesting stuff, spend more time with the people I love, pay less attention to the idiots and bureaucrats, and just generally do better. And that’s not just about me having a better life, but also about me being a better husband, father, colleague, friend, relative, acquaintance, blogger, teacher, music fan, citizen, human being.
But I’ve had enough of the annual lists of specific goals. I don’t know what the steps are to achieving these things. I’m just going to pay a bit of attention, see what works and what doesn’t, and then try and do a little bit better each day. There’ll be no ‘new me’ this year. I’ll just be a work in progress. Let me know how I’m doing, won’t you?
Happy new year.