objectives; goals; ambitions; aspirations

I have NEVER been able to brag about fulfilling goals. I've made plenty. There are many pieces of paper and word documents that have met with my pen, or keystrokes, and have ended up as just that -- pieces of paper and word documents with some words scrawled/typed across. Who knows where they've ended up. The trash can? Forgotten half-filled notebooks stashed in the bottom of a desk drawer? Deleted MySpace profiles? Crashed hardrives? Fallen Post-it notes stuck behind the dresser? The possibilities are endless, but it doesn't really matter; no matter where those lists would have ended up, the goals on them probably wouldn't have been achieved.

For some of these goals, though originally well-meaning in nature, it's probably for the best. Others didn't really matter in the first place. But I know there are some that I've just been lazy and negligent about. I don't want that to be the case anymore, so I'm approaching this whole goals subject from a different angle this time. I'm going to trick them. My first goal is to stick to achieving my goals. I don't think that's been on the list before, and I'm foolishly hoping it works this time.

As much as that's a joke, it's also the sad truth. I'm hoping that when I decide I want to be lazy, I'll think of that first goal and be guilted into fulfilling the others instead. Does that make sense? No? Yeah, I know. But I've found that a lot of the time things that don't make sense still seem to work.

So here are goals 2-5:

2. Become a morning person: I know, I'm pretty skeptical about the possibility of that one too, but I found a little inspiration through this blog post.

3. Journal at least once a day week: If I ever have kids, and they ask me about something from when I was their age, instead of sitting there looking up at the sky, I want to pull out a book and let them read it for themselves.

4. Blog at least once a month: I know I have very few readers, but I really enjoy reading other people's posts, so maybe they enjoy reading mine too.

5. Ride my [mom's] bike a lot this summer: We're in the process of moving...kind of. We haven't sold our "old" house yet, so we're still living in it while the "new" house has a little reconstructive surgery done. The "new" house is probably about a mile from the "old" one, and I find myself driving over there a lot because walking there isn't very quick. Which is dumb, when I could just bike, so I think I will :)

I'll start with those and see where they take me...

Giving In

I try to make it a habit not to make New Year's Resolutions. To me, they just seem to be somewhat disappointing. I never even remember what they were by the end of the year, and some of them don't even matter anyway. But this year I'm looking at things differently. I'm really not sure why. Perhaps on one extreme it's peer pressure--on the other, (and a more likely reason) I'm stubborn and I believe that I can this year. No matter the reason, I am going to make my resolutions now and I am definitely going to follow through with them this year. So, here they are:

• Do my devotions on a regular basis.
• Stop procrastinating in school and even get ahead at times.
• Stay informed on political and current events.
• Drink less soda.
• Stop pointing out the flaws of others.
• Learn to play the guitar (at least the basics).
• Save more money.
• Be there for my friends more.
• Put more effort into my writing.
• Extend my vocabulary.