Resolution Report

The first week of the new year is now complete and it is time to do a brief evaluation of how the resolutions are going. As long as I keep them in the front of my mind, I think I should be able to keep on course to complete them all successfully. As I suspected, some of these are easier to do than others. And, after only one week, it is hard to tell how well some of the longer termed goals are going.

One of the easier resolutions to evaluate is the first one, Procrastinate less: Do the dishes promptly. This one is actually one that I started doing as soon as I thought of it near the beginning of December. Surprisingly, this one has turned out to be fairly easy and more rewarding than I would think it would be. I clean my dishes as soon as I finish with them and I find myself aggressively monitoring the sink for the dishes of others.

An interesting side effect is that I seem to pay more attention to other things that I notice need to be done on a regular basis. For instance, when I see a basket full of laundry (that Kendra was kind enough to do for me) I would previously leave it endlessly, to the point where I would dig around in the several baskets that would collect when I would need clean clothes. Now, it is easier to notice that there are clean clothes to be put away, and I will do it right then instead of waiting till later.

Some things, however, are still purposefully left until later. They tend to be the things that I really, for whatever reason, just don't want to do, now or ever. At the time I am delaying, it isn't as obvious as when there are dishes to be done, but I am starting to notice more. Avoiding things I don't want to do leads into the next topic nicely.

Take responsibility for my life: make any and all phone calls is something that is hard to judge so early in the year. Only recently, near the end of this last week, did it become something for which I actually have a task. Making the phone calls, specifically in a short time frame, is something that will also help develop my anti-procrastinating skills, as well as helping with discipline: specifically, dealing with the phone calls that I really don't want to have to make will help with the discipline to do things anyway, without regard for my personal desires. I have two phone calls that I need to make right now, but it really isn't viable to do during the weekend, so it will have to be done either today or Tuesday and I'll be able to more accurately judge after that. Although, I did take care of a letter that needed to be written; while this isn't technically a phone call, I did take the initiative to write it because of this resolution.

Reading more is pretty easy: I've been trying to make time after I get into bed to read for about an hour before going to sleep. Although, it has required a change, in that I now have to go to bed earlier than I would like. Another easier one is the working out once a week: I really didn't want to do it, but I was able to make myself run on the treadmill once last week. Both of these also help with discipline.

A slightly harder one is Eat Better: making a healthy meal once per week. I really don't have many ingredients, or know many recipes. However, Sunday I helped make some vegetarian chili with Kendra and I am going to count that. My short term plan is to make it weekly myself until I determine other recipes we can make. There is a taco chicken recipe that we also like that I will probably throw in there as well. The ideal would be to introduce some of the elements in the chili to Katy separately to determine if there are any allergies that we don't know about.

Write More: post thrice weekly is also a more complicated process, since it is easy to run out of topics and there is always the temptation to put it off until later. Something that helps is to start the topics as soon as I think of them and just save whatever I have until when I was planning on posting. Also, saving lists of things that I'd like to post about helps me remember for later. I only got the two posts in last week, but think I'll be more successful this one.

Better Attitude: Seeking out activities is a tricky one to judge. I've been agreeable to going to parties and outings with whomever and cheerily greeted and looked forward to having Kendra's mom visit for Christmas. I think I am doing OK, but will need to put effort into planning some of these outings/visits. Maybe I will see about setting up a visit to Mike's as he suggested in the comments.

To summarize, after the first week, I think I am still on track with all of my resolutions and hopefully will be able to expand them as I planned.