Not so new resolutions. . .

I figure if you try to change yourself before New Year's Eve, you say that your goals are not resolutions. Resolutions tend to suggest that you'll be serious about something for January and then give up by February. At least that's been my experience with resolutions in the past.

However, I think if you decide you want to change your life before New Year's and you start acting before New Year's, you can classify your goals as goals. I also figure if I write them on my blog and have my friends, family members and strangers, I'd be held more accountable, as well. At the very least more people can give me shit if I don't meet them.

So, here goes. Here's what I want to do for 2006-2007:

1. In January, I am going to participate in my own little writing boot camp with two of my writing group friends. I have a goal to write 30,000 words by the end of the month. That's 1,000 words or about 4 pages per day. It all started with a group that already participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Apparently it's November and I missed it, but I liked the idea of committing to writing a set amount of words in a month. My friend Terry loaned me Bird by Bird, a great book on writing by Anne Lamont. One of her first goals is writing a shitty first draft. I always start to censor myself about 5 pages into something and then lose interest, so I figure the word count will at least get me to power through it. Plus at the end of the month, I can say that I have my novel, even if it is in a shitty form. Besides, writing makes me happy and being held accountable for it would actually give me no excuses not to do it.
   
2. I need to lose 60 pounds. There's a personal side to this challenge that is to remain my own motivation, but the less personal side is that I have a weight problem. However, I love food and have decided that I'm going to tackle the exercise portion of this goal before I hit the food portion. So, I'm back to walking every day and have started listing my times for my usual route as to increase the walking to a quicker pace and eventually to a semi-jog. I'm also going to tackle a beast that I've given up a long time ago: the scale. My friend Lara said that she needed the scale to see her progress and while I hid from the scale in the past, I know that I'm the same way. I need to see cold hard numbers. Of course, that's going to require buying a scale and I won't really be able to do that until mid-month. Hopefully by then, I'll have dropped a pound or so.
3. I'm going to be happy with my career. This is a little ambiguous and will remain so until I figure out what I want to do professionally. However, I will take steps to do so every week.

Mostly, I just want to live life and realize that my life is not in front of the TV (unless the Colts or Hoosiers are playing). I'll give updates but with my word count quota for January, expect them to be less. And wish me luck!