Listics

New Years Day provides an opportunity for introspection. It’s a chance to set goals and assess progress. There’s no reason this can’t be done annually on March 27, but it seems more convenient to do it at the beginning of the calendar year.

I reviewed my 2024 rezzies, and I’m satisfied that I accomplished some and made progress on others and basically added a few paving stones on the Road to Hell. One of the problems I see with last year’s list is that not all of them were specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, or timely. “Timely?” I think somebody threw that in to force the acronym… how memorable would “SMAR Goals” be, I gotta aks you. Anyway, here they are for this year…

1. Lose weight and get fit. Keep the weight off and continue to improve the fitness. Weigh 185 by May 1, and be able to run up to the North fence and back in ten minutes by July 31.
2. Keep writing. Circulate a book proposal this quarter, do another six Sandhill Interviews this year, work on the novel, discipline myself to four essays of substance with little or no smart-ass tongue-in-cheek stuff.
3. Build a deck off the Lake Room on the East lawn.
4. Finish the landscaping that was on last year’s list.
5. Improve the orchard… plant the two apple trees that are waiting down by the shed, get two new cherry trees and a new Sungold and Moongold apricot. Improve the deer proofing.
6. Start a small kitchen garden in late April this year. Start some of the seeds germinating later this month.
7. Refresh the Sandhill book of business. Review current contract and focus on new opportunities for FY 05.
8. Explore lectureships in the UW system and at MATC.
9. Travel. Honduras Bay Islands? Europe? Cuba?

What makes a New Year Resolution different from a bullet point on a things to do list? Does it have to do with aspirations? Needs? I failed miserably at cleaning my office every month. I’m still as much a procrastinator as ever when it comes to those housekeeping tasks. Would it make sense to resolve not to procrastinate, or would I just put that off too?

• I resolve to do the little things as they come up and not to put them off until their very mass makes them a big thing and unachievable.

So what do I have? Writing, travel, work, house and garden… I’ve left off relationships somehow. How do you quantify or set objectives in those areas? “I resolve not to be as off-putting and downright mean as I have been in the past?” “I resolve to make one new friend a month?” I think this item has more to do with community, business, politics, and the social fabric.

• I resolve to reach out to others, to ask for help and support when I need it and to offer help and support when others may need it.
• I resolve to extend my friendships into new areas and not let my fears wall me off from communicating clearly and warmly with those around me.
• I resolve to support those causes that seem to me to be right and just and true; and not let my support for those causes wall me off from other people who may not feel as passionately as I do about them.

You’ll notice my old tuba and my new Canon EOS 300D are not on this list. Why wouldn’t I resolve to practice the horn daily and to get facile and artismic with my new camera? In the former case, it’s a matter of time and balance and desire. In the latter case, I think it’s an assumption that I’ll be playing hard with the new camera. I’m fortunate to have a life so elaborate and complex that not all my opportunities can be easily reduced to a list. What great books would I resolve to read this year were I to focus on the question? What trash novels would they squeeze off my reading list?

How about cleaning out the barn? Where should that fall on the list? “A place for everything and everything in its place” is such an admirable sounding formula. Realistically, do I have room for it on my list? Not this year. “Win the lottery” has an appeal, but I think it’s better to focus on things I might be able to control.

I have skipped the resolution thing more often than I’ve addressed it. Over the years I’ve achieved some few small resolution sounding goals. I quit smoking and drinking… not in that order and not as the result of any “New Year Resolution.” But probably in the years leading up to those decisions, I would have had them on my list, if I had made a list. Before I close this post I want to acknowldge a category form last year’s list and set a direction for this year as well…

• Better Blogging! More track-backs, fewer comments. More truth, less self conscious bullshit. Less link-rot!