New Year’s Resolutions? More Like Shmoo Shmears Shmesashumutions

I’m not so big on the concept of New Year’s Resolutions. While I like the idea of spending a moment acknowledging the passage of time, taking stock of where you are and where you want to be… New Year’s Resolutions just seem like they set you up to either fail ignominiously or completely forget that you made them in the first place. Case in point: I just had to look up my own blog archives to see if I made any Resolutions last year.

Big surprise: I didn’t make any.

Which is kindof a relief.

I wouldn’t want to have failed ignominiously.

Lisa talked about setting goals instead of making resolutions, a concept that I can totally rally behind. Sure, it’s mostly a matter of semantics, but we are a country that debated the definition of the word “is.” Semantics are what make America great. A goal is something that you’re working slowly towards. A resolution is something that you’re attempting to summon your willpower for. In my book? Steady progress trumps willpower any day.

I have a few goals. Most of them ongoing ones, but it’s not such a bad idea to reiterate things every now and then. These are my goals for 2010:

Finish a half marathon.

This is one that I had better accomplish. I’m signed up to run the Pasadena Marathon at the end of February. Plane tickets have been bought. I will finish this (half) marathon if I have to hobble my way across the finish line.

If I finish Pasadena, I hope to train for a full marathon somewhere in New England in the fall. At this point, though, I’d just be getting ahead of myself.

Continue to lose weight.

You’ll note, I haven’t set a target weight. I’d like to lose about ten pounds, but I don’t have a definite time table. Slow and steady wins the race. This is all about lifestyle change. It’s a lifetime commitment.

First step? Getting rid of the rest of the cookies and other junk food that we have left over from the holidays.

I suspect that my (half) marathon training will be rather helpful in this regard.

Book more gigs. Sell more CDs.

This one might end up being kindof tough. I’ve been busting my tail to get gigs and striking out all over. It’s rather discouraging. But it’s also something that I need to really work on instead of getting discouraged and giving up.

Send out cards for birthdays and anniversaries.

I love getting snail mail. Who doesn’t love getting snail mail? Anyone targeted by the Unibomber and people getting past due notices, I suppose. But who wouldn’t love getting a hand made card on their birthday? I set up alerts in my gmail calendar to remind me to send them out. I hope I can stick with it.

Build my savings account back up to [redacted].

I decimated my savings to pay for Beer and Pie and I still haven’t recovered. I’d like to build it back up to an acceptable emergency fund level. First step? Not buying anything in the month of January. No new clothes, no new music, no new shoes, no more craft supplies. I’ve got a boatload of stuff, I don’t need anything more… at least not for the time being. I haven’t decided if this applies to lattes and hot chocolate as well, but I think that it will.

I’m going on a consumer fast, peoples.

Good thing I stocked up at Sephora during the holidays.

So, how about you lovely people? Do you have goals? Resolutions?