New Year's Resolutions?

Does anyone here plan to make any or do you just break them? In a sense New Years is pretty arbitrary, yet humans are pattern seeking primates and we thrive on symbolism, so to me resolutions are still useful to focus the mind on what I want to achieve in the coming year. A few rough notions come to mind:

  1. Pull straight A’s this year. Laziness, a full time job and a new girlfriend conspired to torpedo my grades last semester. I still have a 3.0 but I can and should do better.

  2. Keep up my workouts at the Y. I hurt my back, then got the flu once my back got better, so I’ve been AWOL at the gym the last week. I’ll turn 40 next spring and I don’t want to be staring down the barrel of diabetes, heart disease, etc.

  3. Dedicate 1 hour a day minimum to reading something not related to school, and if possible one hour per day listening to music. Between required reading and working it’s hard to block off time for other reading, but doing so keeps me grounded.

  4. Here and at ILO, I want to reduce accusing others of being dogmatic by 50%. :wink: Even when they really are, which is most of the time.

  5. I want to start thinking about whether I’ll get married again someday and have a family. I don’t plan on doing so while I’m in school, but I’m not the carefree kid I used to be (and sometimes try to be).

  6. I want to do a better job of connecting with the people in my life that I care about. By nature I’m insular and asocial; I’m aloof but warm to my friends. That said, this year I’ve really blown off my friends. My excuse has been that I’m busy but I think it’s just easier to use that excuse.

  7. One last thing I’d like to focus on is being open to the numinous. People often think atheists almost by definition aren’t spiritual, but that’s not true. The last year I haven’t really been as open to spirituality as I normally am; again, just wrapped up with trying to keep too many balls in the air. In '09 I’d like to focus on that part of myself again.

Those are just a few ideas I have, I’m sure I’ll come up with others.

start smoking (again).

  1. Lose ten or twenty pounds.

  2. Become more tolerant of rationalists. Well, more patient, at least.

  3. Figure out a way to continue to get my staff to fear me, but to perhaps trust me a little more. Delicate balance.

  4. Straighten out my finances. (I’ve got to see an accountant.)

  5. Be more patient is general.

That’s quite enough. Three out of five would be swell.

Increase my disposable income by at least 25%.

Smoke only high grade pot.

Put away enough cash to relocate by the summer of 2010.

Quit smoking weed :frowning:

I have never made any resolutions. It’s sort of like setting yourself up for failure. :smiley:

phew…

  1. Stay in Korea for 12 months.
  2. Learn Korean.
  3. Make an effort with learning Philosophy.
  4. Improve my eating habits and general health.
  5. To be more sincere with others.

(I’ll try but…)

To Trade like Warren Buffet and master/improve my trading skills O:)

Who am I kidding :text-happynewyear:

My new years resolution, though I can’t say I will find it a good idea by morning given my inebritatd state is to try to be less comfortable with being content with little. In other words, try to be motivated and get myself to somehow desire things normal people do, like lots of money, and fancy cars.

aren’t all NY’s resolutions pointless? :-k

Not if you keep to them and they result in the desired change.

New Years Resolutions = Planned Failures

are you succesful in doing that, Rebel? :-k

  1. Get in shape.
  2. Budget finances.
  3. Eat well.
  4. Home Improvements.

I’ve never sincerely made resolutions before…I’ll have to wait and see if I’m sincere about these ones :-"

Is there any real urgency for you to change this year or is it just things you want to do?

I resolve to be more resolute.

A bit of both really. Number 1 is quite important at the moment because I’ve just arrived in Korea and am sorely missing my family and number 4 is important for health reasons, the rest are merely things I want to do.