No Resolutions for Me

It's that time of year again, where people begin to make New Year resolutions and then quickly fail and then spend the rest of the year berating themselves for that failure, or simply forget about it until the following year.

I don't make resolutions. Exactly for that reason. There are simply things that I am going to do or I am not going to do.

1. I am going to have some more stories published. The first of which will be appear in February in an anthology called The Inanimates I. I'm particularly happy with this one because it's the first story I've written that has not been rejected. Accepted the first time out. I think that's progress.

2. I am going to finish the first draft of my novel this year. There is just no other option. I can finish a short story so why can't I finish something longer and more in depth? More complicated?

3. I am going to get outdoors more. More snowshoeing, more hiking or plain old walking. More anything, as long as it's outside. Except when it's -20 or lower. (So what, I'm a wimp!) If it's that cold, I'll go skating or something along those lines. Already took the child skating several times over the last few weeks and she's getting better. Can actually stand up pretty good. Still too nervous to not have someone holding her hand but we went around and around the rink on Boxing Day and she barely fell at all. And now that I discovered there are places we can skate all year round, I'm going to take advantage of it. Did I mention, I love skating?

4. For the colder days, we did buy a treadmill back in September and I've been making really good use of it. Did I mention I joined Weight Watchers back in August and to date I've lost almost 40lbs? No I don't think I mentioned that because I haven't really told anyone. So I suppose that's another thing I am going to do this year. Lose more weight. All of the excess, if possible.

5. I am going to drink more coffee. That's a must.

6. And, I promised a friend that if she lost 20lbs before Christmas I would quit smoking. She hasn't reached that goal, however, at the same time I said if I lost 20lbs by Christmas I would quit smoking. I almost doubled that so now I have to follow through on the promise even if she doesn't remember I said it.

I think 6 things I am going to do this year is more than enough to keep track of. I've already started on #5 and it's not even the new year yet.

I'm off to a good start.