Resolved to be Resolute

Hello, all! :D

(Via Luca Barcellona)

   

     I hope your year is off to a great start! No doubt most of you have picked a few festive-yet-daunting resolutions to overhang you in the coming year.  I salute you, my fellow overly-ambitious souls, and wish you all the greatest success! :D

    

     While Christmas has always been my favorite holiday (I’m a sucker for red and green, ginger snaps, and general jollity), I’ve lately become increasingly fond of New Year’s Day.  I think that the older I get, the more I appreciate a symbolic fresh start on life.  (“Symbolic” because, of course, we have the ability to begin life afresh each day, and even each moment.  It’s nice, though, to have the promise of a brand new year to give us an extra boost.) Sadly, however, as a newcomer to the confident spirit of this particular holiday, I have yet to make many goals weightier than my trademark New Year’s Notes to Self, of which I have a fair few.  ;D

    

      I do have one resolution for this year, though.  I’m trying not to hate being known. This blog is a part of that project.

     

      Speaking of goals, I do have one list I’ve recently begun!  I stumbled across the pattern for it a few months ago on a lovely site called Little Luck Tree, and I thought that any comrades-in-plans out there might like it, too. J The idea, as you can see, is to achieve a certain number of goals before you reach a certain age. I wrote my list in December, and now have about eight months to complete it. ;) So here is my version, laughably simple in some places, but ridiculously unrealistic in the main.  Enjoy!

21 Before 21!

1.    Read 21+ new books.

2.    Lose 21+ pounds.

3.    Make a new friend.

4.    Memorize Psalm 21 and Proverbs 21.
5.    Do 21 hours of community service.

6.       Hike five new trails.

7.       Curl 21 pounds bilaterally (21 reps). [What was I thinking?!]

8.       Do 21 push-ups.

9.       Run a 5k.

10.   Finish that picnic blanket!

11.  Join a bookclub.

12.   Write 210 pages. [Reduced from 2,100, believe it or not. :D Heh heh.]

13.   Find 21 resources for The Plan. [Will have more to post about that soon, I hope! J]

14.   Read 21+ new theology books.

15.   Write 21 poems. [Heh, yeah right.]

16.   Translate 21+ pages of Nada, by Carmen Laforet.

17.   Explore 21 new places.  [Shouldn’t be too difficult, actually, since I just moved to a new state a few weeks ago.]

18.  Join a team (ministry, volunteer, professional, etc.).

19.  Write 21 letters.

20.   Do 21 drawings.

21.   Make a list of 21 good things about myself.  [My mother’s suggestion.  Probably the most challenging.]

  

             How about you? Do you have any goals for this year? Have you ever used a tool like the "X Before X" pattern for setting goals? Which goal that you've accomplished has been your favorite?

         Best of luck, adventurers!  Here’s a sappy song to send you on your way. J