On Resolutions

Sorry about last week. Not REALLY sorry, but a little sorry.

I have ten minutes to write this post.

Also, here's a funny New Year's video:



I learned something about goals. There's a sweet spot, between too- and not ambitious enough. I set a goal to write for six hours every day of the three weeks I have in Utah. That has manifested itself thusly: I have written for an average of 2 to 3 hours every day since I got here.

That could be considered a disappointing failure, but how helpful would that be? Also, not accurate. So I haven't been writing for six hours. Guess what I have done--written a lot. I've made a lot of progress on two feature ideas. The act of writing has started to become habitual. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting close. The trick is that six hours sounded like a reasonable goal, so I got up every day with renewed determination to meet it. If I had set the goal higher, I would have ignored it completely. If I had set it lower, I would have procrastinated to the point that I got much less writing done.

This is helpful in considering resolutions. In 2012, I want to be better about managing my time and diligently working toward the eventual fulfillment of my dreams than I did in 2011. In short, 2011 was great, 2012 will be better.

That's the overarching theme of my life. In a consistant effort to make today better than yesterday, each year ends up being better than the last. It's sure I don't always succeed in making every single day better, but the effort is what counts, the never letting up. The specifics will change constantly, but the idea is always the same. It's about movement, progress, growth.

Onward and upward. 2012, despite what Roland Emmerich might say, is really nothing more or less than one more year. And that's...well, it's pretty great.