new years resolutions...a little late.

Every year one of my New Year’s resolutions is to stop procrastinating. Not surprising, given that in a typical year I don’t actually MAKE my resolutions until it’s nearly February.

This year, however, my first conversation of 2011 included the point blank question “so what are your New Years Resolutions?” If you know me, you probably know that I often require several minutes of what (to the untrained observer) might appear to be unfocused rambling before reaching an actual point or response. My conversation partner was thankfully kind enough to politely listen as I blathered my way through my thoughts in order to reach my final point…that I’m giving up on big, open-ended, vague, or unrealistic resolutions that you can never be sure whether you’ve kept or not. You know those…the ones where you commit to working out more, or getting up earlier, or watching less television. The ones where you set yourself up for failure. I’ve tried those resolutions for years, and at the end of every year I’m at best uncertain as to whether or not I achieved any of them. Does it count as “working out more” when you didn’t work out at all in the previous year and then went walking/running 5-10 times in 12 months? Probably not. And honestly, even when I was relatively certain that I’d at least moved in the right direction, I was somehow just left feeling even more acutely aware of the other big things I needed to tackle.

This year I’m trying something different. This year, it’s all about baby steps and the little things. Things like committing to hosting friends for dinner at my place, reading three to five books I’ve been meaning to read and haven’t, learning how to make my Nana’s biscuits, and FINALLY lugging the tons of clothes I haven’t worn in years out of my closet and off to the resale or thrift store or donation bin. For 2011, I’d prefer not to end the year frustrated by my inability to reach the lofty goals I set for myself. 2010 provided plenty of that, thank you very much. No, for 2011 I’m going to set the bar at a more realistic level. Nothing superhuman. My goal is to end the year feeling …satisfied to some extent. Productive. And, you know, to stop procrastinating…