On The Cusp Of The New Year

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22974 – 1051

Here’s the haps:

In her article, 9 Ways to Update Your Online Presence, friend of this blog, Jacqui Murray, said, “This week, I’ll post updated suggestions to get your computers and technology ready for the blitz of writing you’ll swear to accomplish in New Year resolutions.” To which I commented, “You peeked at my resolutions!” Which was good for a laugh for both of us.

But this is traditionally the time of year to make new commitments and begin to work on changing habits. I think where many people fail, myself included over the years, is that they want to change too much too soon. And the other thing is desire. Desire and motivation are directly related, I think. So the next question is, what do I desire for this year? This is a tricky question, but I have a couple of goals in mind. You can call them anything you like, goals, resolutions, annual theme, or whatever but the point of any of it is change.

Change. A much-maligned and abused word but that’s what it is. What do I want to change? So my resolutions are actually a list of changes I desire to make. Things I would like to achieve. At the beginning of this year, I didn’t make any clear statements or set any real goals. One of the biggest things is time. I was talking to one of my young friends (it’s strange to say it that way, really. I’ve known him since he was a little child and now he’s a grown man. But he is quite a bit younger than me, thus, one of my young friends) who is a fairly accomplished musician. One thing that he said he gets tired of is when people tell him, “I wish I could learn an instrument.” “Well, go ahead.” “But I just don’t have the time.” “You have the time you make. You just don’t really want to do it bad enough.” That conversation stuck with me.

When I was working on the Joseph story I remembered how much discipline is involved in writing and how much time writing takes me. But I like it. I liked the feeling of accomplishment I had. It’s something I enjoyed doing, even though it was work. Actually, there were several of my story puns that made me feel that way, too. Like Snoopy sitting on his doghouse with his typewriter, laughing and kicking his feet and saying how much he enjoys it.

So one of the things I need to make time for is writing. This blog was started to exercise my writing but wasn’t meant to be my sole output. I need to carve out writing time. I already have some buy-in from the family for this one. They’ve said that if I set a certain time that is my work time, they will honor it. This puts me on the spot because now I have to either put up or shut up. Well, now I’ve got it to do.

Another thing I have to do is read more. I am way behind on my reading. I have books that people have given me that I want to/need to read. Plus, this year, I plan to read the Bible through again but do it the old-fashioned way, with the actual book in hand. Electronics are nice and the audio version is great but there’s something about holding the book in your hand and reading it that can’t be ignored.

These things take time which means I will need to sacrifice some things that are time-consuming. I need to spend less time online. This will mean trimming the (extensive) list of comics and blogs I read. If you see less of me visiting you, it’s not meant to be personal but I have to trim some of the fat from my time budget.

Speaking of trimming fat, I am going to have to be a little more serious about losing weight. One of my best friends has lost almost 200 pounds this year. He decided to do it because our pastor had a serious heart attack early this year. I’m happy and excited for him, of course (My friend for losing the weight, not our pastor for having a heart attack), but he will soon be down to where I am currently, and then I will be heavier than him. I know, I know, it’s not a competition but it is a motivator.

So that’s my plan for changes in the new year.

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