Progress......or Lack Thereof - January 15, 2010

A week into the New Year's resolutions and some progress has been made, sort of.

Translation: Not one resolution is going completely well, but we're making a dent in all of them.

I don't see this as failure. Life, like New Year's Resolutions, is all about the battle against inertia. As long as you're making progress in the right direction, you're succeeding!

Let's start with the Christmas decorations. I tackled the house and packed up all the ribbons and bows, the wrap and the tape, the tree and the decorations, the lights and the ornaments, the tablecloth and the assorted decorations around the house. I thought I had this one finished last week when I saw, today, a ratty piece of artificial holly that was masquerading as mistletoe, hanging from my front hallway light. Well, it won't take a moment to finish off this resolution.

I moved the dusty exercise equipment most of us won't admit to having from a remote corner of the basement to right in front of my hobby area and pointed towards a television. First workout went great. Now both the exercise equipment and the hobby area are collecting dust. This week is not over yet, so there is still hope.

I bought a curtain rod for the planned curtains in the office - I don't know if I can legitimately call that progress.

I've applied to more jobs over the last week and contacted many in my network about a possible job, so now I wait and see. I'm also cooking up a Plan B if all else should fail.

Still, life is great. My family is healthy and full of love. I have a few great friends and caring neighbours. I have no complaints really.

So, I hope you look at the struggles in your life and see, not the distance to the goal, but the strides you've made already to get there and smile as a result.

New Year's Resolutions

That time honoured tradition of seeing the year start with the making of promises that may only have the hope of lasting 5 minutes is one I relish every year. I actually think I have a shot at these ones.

1) Put away all Christmas decorations by end of tomorrow. (We're a full week into January already so it's about time!)

2) Clean up the home office. We've let it get messy and a messy desk is not the most productive one. This I want to do next week, but trying to be successful at these resolutions this year, I'm giving myself until the end of January.

3) Find a job - let's face it, unemployment, for those who want to be employed, SUCKS! I have many irons in the proverbial fire, but I actually have to make something come of at least one of them.

4) Make drapes for the office. We have a room we use as a home office (same messed up room as #2 above) and I have the material to make drapes for the office. I just need to dust off the sewing machine and get this job done. Again, I hope to do this by end of next week, but I'm giving myself until the end of January to complete this.

5) I want to exercise 4 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes. I'm not doing weight loss goals this year, although I do want to get in better shape, but I just want to improve my fitness level.

6) I have a certificate I've been working towards earning through a self-paced on-line program for months and I want to complete it by the end of Jan. It's feasible if I can focus for 2 hours a day for 4 days per week between now and then.

I'll be honest enough to keep how I'm doing posted here. Do you have resolutions you want to share here too? By all means.