New Year's Resolutions: Mid-year Update

This past Friday at work, we had our weekly meeting with the main folks in the Consumer side of the Marketing department. Normally, the grand poobah of our side of the company reads to us from a book and then takes the passage from the book into the rest of the meeting as sort of a guiding light for where we go. This week was no different, and this week was the tangibility of dreams and how you can raise the success rate of your goals. One of the ideas discussed was how writing them down affects the rate of achievement of these goals, and how sharing them improves this as well. This leads me into the sharing of my New Year's Resolutions and giving a kind of mid-year update on how I am doing, perhaps giving me insight into my focus as far as the rest of the year is concerned and maybe giving people that I know an idea of what they need to push me on so I stop screwing around and achieve things on my list. Accountability is key, and without that accountability, I may never get there. So without further adieu, here is my list of New Year's resolutions.

1. Read 10 Books
2. Make 3 new good friends
3. Develop the ability to do 20 consecutive pull ups, 5 one armed push ups, and run 5 miles in 35 minutes
4. Learn how to play a musical instrument
5. Reach all of my incentive levels at work
6. Go on my first self paid vacation
7. Maintain my current weight
8. Finish my second degree
9. Catch up on all of the games I haven't finished
10. Start trying to learn a new language. Spanish perhaps?
11. Learn to say the right thing...somehow. Help?
12. Get more resolutions

Some relatively easy, some extremely hard (New language? What is wrong with me and where did I get that idea?!), all with varying levels of success. Here is an update on where I am on each one.

1. Read 10 Books

So far this year, I've been pure crap at this. Sure, I can easily turn this one around if I just focused a bit of my comic/graphic novel/trade paperback/blog/sports column reading time on books, but given the amount of time I spend screwing off, I should be able to do better. This year, I read Sung in Blood by Glen Cook, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and Winkie by Clifford Chase. 3 books. 6 months. I am ridiculous. The sad thing too, is my book list at the beginning of the year was huge. It has gotten even larger, and I'm barely even making a dent. I'm half way through Bill Simmons column collection about the 2004 Boston Red Sox called Now I Can Die in Peace but I always get distracted by new columns, so I'm getting nowhere with that.

Diagnosis: Finished by comics early this week, time to knock out a book.

2. Make 3 new good friends

Now, given varying degrees of cheatingness, I could call this a success. Including work folks who I consider friends but do not actually hang out with outside of work, this is a success. However, let's not count that. I'm working on this, I swear, and I have two people who are somewhere between friend and acquaintance that I'd love to hang out with. We shall see. I also have one other person who I hang out with and talk with pretty much daily, and I'll count her. I'm going to call this one a moderate success with room for growth.

Diagnosis: Success, pending further definition of term "good friends."

3. Develop the ability to do 20 consecutive pull ups, 5 one armed push ups, and run 5 miles in 35 minutes

This one is going moderately well. Currently, depending on the grip, I can do either 10 pull ups (tight reverse grip) or 1 (forward grip out wide). I was going off the former originally when I made this goal, so I'm going to say half way there, but I'd prefer to be able to do 20 of the latter because it makes you look way more hardcore. I can currently do zero one armed push ups, however most of that has to do with form than actual strength. Has there ever been a more awkard looking thing to do or look at than a one armed push up? Except when Jack Palance is doing one while accepting an Oscar for City Slickers that is. Then you just look hardcore. Running is going well, even though I've been a huge slacker lately. The other night I ran 2.63 miles in 20 minutes flat. This prorates to 4.6 miles in 35 minutes, which I'm going to say is good and on track for the end of the year.

Diagnosis: Looking good, keep it up me!

4. Learn how to play a musical instrument

Does writing on a blog count as a musical instrument?

Diagnosis: Ugh.

5. Reach all of my incentive levels at work

Well the first quarter I hit. Second quarter so far, with a little bit less than 2 weeks, I have two Cell Days to get to if I want to hit my full incentive. It's going to go down to the nitty gritty, but I think I can do it.

Diagnosis: At the buzzer, but I think I'm going to make it.

6. Go on my first self paid vacation

Labor Day weekend, Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle. Woo! Now I'm going to call this a qualified success. I will pay for the vacation business, but I will be bumming a mileage ticket to get there, or at least that is the plan. So, the vacation BESIDES the ticket will be self funded. Needless to say, get ready Pacific Northwest, you will be seeing me in September!

Diagnosis: Success!!

7. Maintain my current weight

Beginning of year: 195. Currently: 190, with added muscle.

Diagnosis: Success, although Colver's Mom said that I was "withering away."

8. Finish my second degree

Wrapped up my LSU class with an A on my final. Crazy...get a new instructor in that class and receive A's for my last two grades. IMAGINE THAT! Call me a college graduate...x2.

Diagnosis: Hello Marketing Degree...meet Management and Human Resources degree!!!

9. Catch up on all of the games I haven't finished

I can hardly believe one of my resolutions is actually based around finishing video games. It is a very sad day when I have to motivate myself to complete video games. It's even sadder that this is the primary rival to "musical instrument" and "foreign language" for "resolution letdown of the year."

Diagnosis: Hey...I beat Guitar Hero 2 and Resistance: Fall of Man. There are only 24 hours in a day!

10. Start trying to learn a new language. Spanish perhaps?

Necesito conseguir de trabajo en éste.

Diagnosis: Falta. Falta total. This section of the blog was brought to you by Babel Fish, website designed to satisfy all of your foreign language translation needs!

11. Learn to say the right thing...somehow. Help?

This little nugget stemmed from my friend Amanda commenting on my ability to always say the wrong thing in the wrong situation. This has changed in no way, as I continue to suck at this. Not only this, my other problem of NEVER saying the right thing in the right situation continues, as well of having cruel, cruel inhibitions that block myself from success in situations that I would REALLY like to succeed in, i.e. speaking to girls when I want them to be interested in me. Of course even if I do somehow get blindly lucky in this regard, I'll either mess it up or I will do nothing. C'est la vie!

Diagnosis: I suck at girl.

12. Get more resolutions

Now this one I could easily come around, so very soon I will have a follow up post replacing any resolutions I may have already succeeded on, and with each additional success I have I will replace that one with a new goal. See, it's always good to have goals. If you don't there is no where to look forward to, and no point to strive for. A person always needs things to reach for, or they will aimlessly wander through the abyss, never failing at anything but never really achieving anything either.

Diagnosis: In progress, as all things always should be. Progressing.