The Beginning of Something Better

Historically I've hated goal setting. I'm pretty much going to chalk that up to poor follow-through on my part. When it came down to it I didn't want to change as much as I wanted to avoid the discomfort of change. I've been thinking a lot lately about what I really want out of life. Accordingly, I've created a list of New Year's resolutions. I'm almost positive that this is the first time in my life that I've ever actually made such a list. It is as follows:

1. Spend time every day learning how to write, and by extension edit better
2. Learn to play the guitar
3. Help my roommate train for his triathlon

I enjoy writing, I enjoy editing. That's what I've said, but by and large my actions have not supported such a theory. I bought a MacBook recently that will go with me all over campus to be used to just that end. I also recently bought two new books with authors totally unknown to me (I'm halfway through the first). I made it a goal a while back to read a new book every two weeks. At the time the goal was realistic. Now, I will not have such luxury of time, but such reading will count towards my roughly hour or so spent daily writing, reading, or editing.

I took a guitar class during last spring semester and learned nothing. I didn't practice which meant I didn't want to go to class, which meant I didn't learn anything there either. It's absurd really. I paid to take the class "for fun" and I didn't do much of anything in it. My brother sent me a guitar tuner for my birthday. My birthday is in March, but he thought it was in January. Serendipitous if you ask me. Any time that I thought about practicing the thought of tuning the guitar, with a cd and listening, was too much for me. I did it a couple times only to ask Clark if it sounded right and wait the ten minutes why he undid the damage I had done. Again, I've been saying I want to learn guitar for a long time, but haven't done anything about it. That needs to change.

To clarify, I'm not going to be in the triathlon, but I am going to train with my roommate for it. I know he needs the extra motivation of exercising with a friend and I just need the exercise.

My goals are rather lofty in my own estimation. My reticence to set goals in the past has been driven by a fear that I wouldn't complete them. If I don't try at all though I'm certainly not going to make such changes. Here's hoping for something better with the new year.