This Time It's Going to Stick...Really

I'm getting organamized for 2008, because this is going to be a freakin' fantastic year. I'm making lists and setting goals, which I tend to do every year only to find them abandoned at the bottom of a pile of unfiled paperwork six months later. I don't know what it is about making New Year's Resolutions. I enjoy the process of creating them, but hate the process of keeping them.

It's like college. I loved getting to the end of the semester when it was time to register for the next term. The challenge was to make the "perfect" schedule, which usually boiled down to no 8:00 am classes. And you could experiment a little bit...schedule all of your classes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday and take Tuesday/Thursday off. Or take all morning classes and have the rest of the day to yourself, or all afternoon classes where you could sleep 'till noon. The sky was the limit and I enjoyed the challenge of filling in those blocks of time. Once the new term rolled around, however, and I had to attend those classes was a whole 'nother ball of yarn. Those classes that I had so strategically and painstakingly researched and scheduled usually lost their luster once I walked through the classroom door.

This year's going to be different, though. I can feel it in my bones. Just that gut feeling that defies explanation. You know, the way I felt that Illinois was going to destroy USC. The way that people truly believed the Titanic was unsinkable. But this year I have a plan. And in that plan I've got goals and aspirations. I've even got frickin' categories, from health to finances to family and relationships to career. And I have subcategories for personal wellness as I look at my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. I have series' of small goals that will lead me to achieve my large ones. I have time lines and pie graphs and flow charts and electronic planners and support software. I have Microsoft Outlook.

Wow. Now that I look at this, not just this post but all these papers spread out, it's a little overwhelming. What am I thinking? I can't do all this. There's no way in hell I can keep all of these resolutions. And in trying to achieve all 167 of them, I'll end up accomplishing none. Why do I do this to myself? One of these years I'll finally grow the balls to stick to my ultimate resolution: don't waste time making resolutions! I'll start that next year.