New Year's Resolutions 2013

So it’s that time of year again when we start trying to make changes in our lives. I actually succeeded with most of mine last year, even if the progress I made wasn’t that much. I plan to make more this year. Once again it’s going to come in the form of a short list.

1. Get fit.

Yeah, basically just a different wording from last year’s goal: be healthier.

Yes, I know this is one of the most common goals and one of the most easily given up, but I’ve put a lot of thought into what changes have to be made over what period of time to achieve this, and I have a lot of motivation. This is going to include more improvement in my diet and the re-introduction of exercise.

2. Keep improving work.

One of my goals last year was to get better grades and this has been successful, so I want it to continue and hopefully reach the top grade finally. I’ve already put a bit of planning into work for the new semester to make sure it’s good.

3. Write every day.

This is a slight change from last year’s goal ‘write a story every day’ which while doable, isn’t very easy, particularly when you have other things to do. It’s certainly not a way to write a good story anyway. So I’ve just changed it to write every day. This doesn’t include blog posts but I will count any writing I do for university providing it’s a significant amount (which I’m sure it will be). This is just a good way to keep my writing skills working. I want to enter more writing competitions this year as well. I did my first last year and I think it would be a good idea to do more. I’d really like to be able to get something published by the end of the year.

Those are actually the only three resolutions I have. There are other changes I want to make and things I want to do over the course of the year, many of which I mentioned in my last post, so I don’t feel the need to add them here.

For goals in general, the best advice I’ve had recently from several sources recently is to break down big goals into smaller ones that can be achieved over smaller periods of time, which should be easy for me to do since I usually write to do lists for the day and things like that. My plan for achieving these and other goals I have at the moment is to come up with some type of schedule. The thing is, I’m good at planning things and good at following schedules but I’m bad at wanting to follow them because I don’t like doing the same thing all the time. I think that’s why previous attempts at following a schedule failed, because it was the same one for every week. I found just having to do lists for the day but no specific time to do them by was easier. The reason for wanting to try the schedule thing again is just because I have a lot to do now and I want to make sure everything gets done but my plan is to write up a different schedule each week so it changes and I’m not doing everything the same all the time.

So, anyone else have new year’s resolutions? What are your plans for sticking to them?