Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Year resolutions

My first questions is, who has made a new year resolution in the past and actually kept it? Seriously, I'm looking for success stories here.

By and large, I've pretty much come to look at NY resolutions as set-ups for failure. This is predominantly because of personal lack of success. Over the past couple years, I've made a point of not making resolutions. Looking back, I think that was weak. So I'm attempting it again, and since this is public, we'll be able to keep track throughout 2010.

Because its the system I am most familiar with, each of these are intended to be S.M.A.R.T. goals. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound)

So without further adieu, in 2010, I will:
  1. Successfully RUN an organized race - I am not being specific about what race because I don't know where I'll be at different points of 2010. That being said, the Warrior Dash or the Peachtree Road Race look to be good races for a first-time runner. This resolution is in place of the typical "exercise" resolution because in order for me to run in a race, being that I am not currently in the practice of running - I will, by default, be exercising in preparing.
  2. Graduate from Kennesaw State University with a 3.5 GPA. Right now, I am sitting with a 3.49 GPA. This coming semester, I have 13 hours, followed by a summer internship that counts for 12 hours. (On a side note, my GPA actually fell after this last semester, during which I made 5 B's.) The fact that I'm above a 3.0 makes me happy when I remember my GPA when I left Harding U.
  3. Educate myself a little better on Biblical history. Over the past few years, I've come to feel worse about the fact that I can hold my own in a conversation pertaining to baseball, yet when a Bible study turns to the historical stories that I should remember from my childhood, I can't really offer anything because I don't know. As long as I can remember, I've been more interested in the New Testament - the nuts and bolts of how I need to live. I know this resolution isn't really specific, because I'm going to talk to my preacher about this and get his recommendation. I'll update this one within the coming week hopefully.
  4. Make a final decision on whether I am going to use my guitar or sell it. I've been waffling on this for the past couple years. I bought my guitar from a church friend back around 2003 I think. I started off taking lessons regularly, but then ran out of money and stopped. Since then, I have yet to really apply myself with it. Each time I've come close to listing it for sale however, I've failed to pull the trigger because I really want to learn to play it. So if, by the end of 2010, I have not taken up a course of study with it and have not made significant ground on learning to play - I will sell it.
  5. Purchase a life insurance policy. I've known about the importance of this ever since Sarah and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Stupidly, I've dragged my heels in actually doing it. Sarah has one through work, but right now I've got nothing, leaving Sarah unprotected if something bad happened. (Do not use this to infer that Sarah is pregnant, this is just something that I need to do, period.)
So there you have it, my 2010 resolutions. Are you making resolutions this year? What resolutions in the past have you successfully followed through on?