Every year I make at least a couple of New Year’s resolutions. And like many people I half-heartedly pay attention to them for a little while and then abandon them for whatever else has recently caught my attention. This year I’m trying something different. I’m going to try and half-heartedly pay attention to them the entire year. Yep, you heard me. I recently made my list of ten resolutions for 2012 and I’m committing myself to at least think about accomplishing them throughout the entire year. They may not all get done (and several probably won’t), but as of right now, I’m putting them all on my back beside the proverbial monkey, and I’m going to force myself to pay attention – and then feel guilty when I start slacking.
I’m posting here simply so I’ll have some place to look back on throughout the year to check on my progress (or lack thereof). So here they are. Prioritized in the order of which I think I want to do them. This is a summarized version – maybe I’ll try to expand on some of them in individual posts later.
1) Cartooning. I’ve always had an interest in art and thought it would be cool to be a cartoonist. Aside from being a professional baseball player, this is probably the crazy dream I’ve held on to the longest. I mean, I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist since elementary school. How strong has this desire been? I guess, not strong enough since I’m not currently a cartoonist. My goal here is to draw a little every day or so and have 30 completed comics by the end of the year. Level of commitment: 60%
The first book of my 2012 chess training curriculum.
2) Chess study. This is far from a lifelong dream as I didn’t even learn how to play chess until after college. And except for a couple of months in grad school, I never really played. But I’ve gotten interested in it this past year. I’m still terrible and can’t for the life of me remember more than a three-move sequence, but I’ve gotten several books and want to come up with a study program to really start learning the game. Level of commitment: 55%
Richard Feynman lecturing. Source: wikipedia.org
3) Read Feynman’s Lectures on Physics. These are legendary. My wife got me the three-volume boxed set for Christmas in 2010. These really are amazing and something any scientist would benefit from reading. Not only is he the father of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman is considered by many to be one of the best writers of technical literature ever. Since I’ll probably never get around to reading a translation of Newton’s Principia, I would be remise in my duties as a scientist if I didn’t read these. My goal is to read at least the first volume in 2012. Level of commitment: 45%
Source: www.altfg.com/Stars/w/war-and-peace-68.jpg
4) Read War and Peace. This has been a resolution of mine at least five times. Some years I didn’t even start it. And some years I started but didn’t get past page 50 or so. This is a tough one as I’m not even looking forward to reading it, but am looking forward to saying that I “have read” it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because so many people think it’s the best book ever. Or because it’s so hard. Or maybe because this resolution has been kicking my ass for so long that I don’t want to let it beat me. Regardless, my level of commitment this year: 25%
This isn't me. Source: http://www.crossfitla.com
5) Lose 20 pounds and learn to walk on my hands. Why do I want to lose 20 pounds? So it will be easier to walk on my hands. Why do I want to walk on my hands? I don’t know. How many people do you know who can walk on their hands? Probably not many. Plus, when I hit my goal weight of 175, I’m going to get a new tattoo. Level of commitment: 50%
TheScienceExperts.com
6) Writing and blogging more. Kind of a vague goal but to somewhat quantify it, I’ll say to successfully complete this resolution, I want to average at least one post a week to this blog and to another hobby site of mine, The Science Experts. Click on this link. If it’s sometime in 2012 and the most recent post you see is over a week old, that means I’m failing this one.
How awesome is this guy? Image source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams
7) Read all 29 of Tennessee Williams’ major plays. This should be a fairly easy one as he’s one of my favorite writers. And I’ve read maybe a half dozen of his plays over the years.
Consider this. You’re at another cocktail party and someone asks you, “Say, Matt. Have you read all of Tennessee Williams’ major plays?” You answer, “Why yes, I’ve read all 29 of them.” How cool would that be? Now that I think about it, 29 plays is an average of more than one every two weeks. I’ll leave that as my goal but will consider this resolution a success if I read a dozen. I’m going to start with his first famous play, “The Glass Menagerie” from 1944 and read them in the chronological order in which he wrote them. Level of commitment: 20%
The kind of stuff I get to do for work.
8) Get more organized at work. This shouldn’t need to be a resolution but unfortunately I sometimes get wrapped up in missions and travel and let my routine duties slip. Too often I’ll get to my office and then figure out what I need to do that day. I need to be more proactive in mid- and long-range planning. Level of commitment: 80%
Source: buzzedcutandshaved.blogspot.com
9) Stop shaving my head. That kind of makes it sound like shaving one’s head is an addiction. I suppose it could be. Maybe in an alternate universe I’m going to weekly meetings and saying, “Hello. My name is Matt and I can’t stop shaving my head.” But I live in this universe. And I’ve kept my head shaved for the last decade or so because it’s easier. You know, brushing your hair, occasionally washing it, getting regular haircuts. That’s a lot of work. Plus, I was starting to get the old-man bald spot about the time I hit 30. This year I’m going to start using some Rogaine and see if I can become a hippie by 2013. Level of commitment: 5%
My wonderful family
10) Be a better husband and father. This is another one that shouldn’t need to be a resolution as I should be doing this every day, every year anyway. But I’m putting it on here to help keep me focused on what are the highest priorities in my life. So how am I going to measure this one? That’s tough. I guess anything that I do that adds to this will count. Even little things like cleaning the kitchen without being asked. Doing laundry in the middle of the week. Reading more with my kids. Telling my wife more often how wonderful she is. Level of commitment: 100%
And oh yeah, going to a PTA meeting like I did last night counts toward this resolution. But I must admit that after last night, going to another PTA meeting in 2012 is quite unlikely. That hour lost would have been better spent actually doing something with the kids than listening to other parents whine about teachers.
There you have it, my goals for 2012. I may geek it up even more by making a spreadsheet where I can track my progress every month or so. Complete with graphs and pie charts and everything. But that might be too much work and I do have a lot of reading to get to…