My own New Year's resolutions, redux from 2008

[thatcrazycajun]

Since I seem to have achieved at best only partial progress in last year's list of New Year's resolutions, I am reposting the same list for 2009, with more specifics to help insure better success.

In the calendar year beginning today, I hereby resolve to do the following:

• Be more attentive to my Songbird as she toils half a world away. This means: more letters, greeting cards and postcards and less of the expensive long-distance international phone calls. This also means more e-mails, even short ones.
• Finally get a CD of my own songs out (a hardy perennial). This means: deciding on a set list, seeking any and all help from friends I can get, and investigating what hardware and software I need to do at least some of the work myself.
• Be more proactive and less avoidant/procrastinatory about handling my financial obligations. This means: opening all mailed bills the instant they come in the house and reading them completely, then making immediate arrangements to pay at least part of what is owed. This also means checking on my credit score at least once every 3-4 months and arranging for auto-payments where necessary and possible. And it especially means paying any bills with SB's name on the account promptly and in full—every month!
• Be more artistically creative and exercise those long-underused mental muscles. This means: creating more spec projects for the portfolio, sketching with pencil and paper and reading the book on comic-book art I bought this time last year and never touched throughout 2008.
• Be kinder to others and more patient with them when they fail to meet my expectations. This means: being mindful and aware of my feelings without letting them run amok with me, and taking a deep breath when I need to before speaking or acting.
• Work harder on rebuilding my relationship with my genetic family. This means: sending cards and/or gifts on birthdays, Mother's and Father's Days and other occasions, calling at least one of them each month to at least say, "Hi, how's your life lately? I'm thinking of you." This especially applies to Daddy, who just turned 75 last month and is now living on borrowed time. And it definitely means working hard at being less contemptuous of them because they may not share my intellect, interests or views, and less resentful for past grievances, real or imagined.
• Work harder on developing my professional career & network outside my day job. This means: actually attending at least some of those meetings I keep getting e-mail notices about, contacting people who are in my network occasionally for advice, and seeking out more freelance-work opportunities. This also means responding at once to orders and inquiries from those freelance customers I already have.
• Think more carefully about what I write in this journal before posting it. This means: stop and consider whether what you are about to post would cause offense, awkwardness or problems for SB or anyone else.
• Be more politically active to help bring about the changes I want to see in the country and the world. This means: speak and write to people beyond the circle of those I know agree with me already, and volunteer for actual work with a cause I support.
• Respect other people's views, worth, needs and feelings more. This means: not assuming those who oppose my policy desires are evil or moronic simply for disagreeing with me. It also means listening respectfully to their rebuttals and hearing them out, and addressing their points with actual facts (research!) rather than sweeping generalizations, guesses or empty rhetoric. Especially applies to SB when she disagrees with me on matters of belief or principle.

What's on your to-do list for 2009? Feel free to share.

Comments

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

Best of luck with your resolutions! At the risk of sounding as if "not procrastinating" should be one of mine, I honestly haven't come up with a list yet. A lot of what I've been doing since the middle of 2008 has been working well, and what I really want to do is continue the positive trends and momentum.