365 Down

Three hundred and sixty five days. Roughly one hundred and eighty two (and one half) of the past three hundred sixty five days were insane. The rest were either completely crazy, entirely exhilarating, or mildly boring.

It's been interesting, to say the least. Of the resolutions I made about this time last year, the only one I really nailed was "Get a new job." I went a bit overboard and got three.

As for the others, I've had varying degrees of success. At least I made some progress on all of them.

I like the tradition of New Year's resolutions. Personally, I don't resolve to do things I don't actually want to accomplish. I used to come up with huge lists of resolutions, and forget about or just give up on all of them. They were fun lists (I love making lists), but not really honest goals.

I can resolve to make a change at any time. I could make my resolutions at any time during the year and I frequently do. Things change, after all. The New Year, though, provides a nice, solid start date.

For this year, I have a very short list of resolutions.

1. Take action. I fret instead of act. Dale Carnegie said. "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage." Dale Carnegie was a smart guy.

2. Set deadlines for myself. I hate to admit it, but I'm not really much of a self-starter. Every now and then I work up some motivation and get some stuff done, but for the most part I have a lot of "some day" plans. Screw that.

One of the tricks about setting deadlines for myself, though, is a personal deadline is pretty easy to blow off. Luckily, I've learned a few tricks (hooray for National Novel Writing Month). First off, brag to everyone about the amazing thing you're going to accomplish by [x] date. Next up, make bets with people who think you can't do it (after a certain point you'll have to find new people who are sick of losing to you). If those don't work, find something you really DON'T want to do and set things up so you have to do it if you fail. For example, give a trusted chum an envelope with $50 in it, addressed to a foundation/group/association that you really, REALLY don't like. If you miss your deadline, the envelope gets mailed. If you make it, you get the envelope back and can do whatever you want with it (for example, donating to your favorite charity, or buying some trick new gadget for your bike).

Sneaky, huh?

Anyway, two little resolutions ought to be easy to keep track of, and they're changes I really want to make.



Of course, I also intend to spend a hell of a lot of time riding, and finding new and hopefully delicious pizzas.