New year, new strategy for goal setting

As 2010 comes to a close, and the new year is rising upon us, this is what I’ve learned: everybody, everybody, hates New Year’s Resolutions. They never work. Nobody ever sticks to them. All they do is discourage and disappoint you. I’m pretty sure they’re roughly 80% of the reason for the coming World War III.

So today, I reached the logical conclusion of setting a couple good ol’ New Year’s Resolutions for myself. In thinking of these Resolutions, I encouraged myself to stay away from practical things like, write more consistently, work out every morning, or anything else that looked like a usual New Year’s Resolution.

Sidenote: I think I figured out why most New Year’s Resolutions fail, because nobody actually cares one way or the other about practical things. In fact, I just looked it up, the definition of practical is: things people should care about but don’t. Anyways, here are my Resolutions.

1) Attempt fishing three times

Part of my goal for my time in Portland was to try out sidenotes, or random small sparks of interest, and fishing has always been one of them. I love the idea of hiking to a lake, camping out there, sitting next to the water, drinking some lukewarm beers, talking shit, and miserably failing to catch any fish.

2) Sleep less

I think I’ve always just wished I had more time. There are so many random sidenotes that I immediately discard because I say, I don’t have the time. It would also just be convenient to add more hours to my day.

3) Eat less

I can’t explain this one. I am fascinated by human physiology. The more I learn, the more curious I am to how I can abuse and manipulate it. I like the idea of needing less food. And fasting, I think it’s funny.

4) Drink more coffee and tea

I love the idea of those people who need coffee to function and act like pretentious assholes when they haven’t had coffee in the last two hours. I suppose I should prepare to say an early goodbye to my kidney.

5) Incorporate the terms “boss,” “baller,” and “my friend,” into my everyday dialect

As in: My friend, let me tell you about that dude over there, he just defended his PhD thesis and completed his 18th triathlon in the same day. What a boss. Yeah, he’s a total baller.

Again, I fully admit none of these Resolutions are backed by anything resembling logic. I used to think every goal should have a purpose: How does this help me get to med school? How does this make me a more caring person? How does this help my relationship? etc. etc. I still believe in a focusing vision, but I’ve also started to remember that I want to follow those stupid sidenotes that are on your heart for no apparent reason. If they're really engraved on your heart that deeply, there must be some reason for that, right?

from ken

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