Grand Goal August 2009

I am Queen of the Grand Resolution. However, I am Pauper of the Follow-through. (Does that compute? I get it.)

I love making lists, statements of change and detailed plans for my self-improvement.

Things I have committed to achieving in the past:

- attend gym three times per week
- stay at gym for at least 15 minutes each time
- run up the Wentworth escarpment stairs each day
- log all food consumed without lying
- use free weights each morning before getting dressed
- write a different person a letter each week
- stop eating fast food or anything neon in colour
- read War and Peace
- do all Christmas shopping by December 1
- host dinner parties on the last Sunday of each month
- complement one person genuinely each day

Of this list, I have achieved very few. Your outfit looks really great today, by the way.
I often begin gung-ho and fizzle out after a 3 or 4 days. Fine, after 2 days. I console myself with the fact that at least I have the ambition to set goals for myself, but I really would like to make changes that stick.

So, this one I really mean! No, really.

Beginning August 1 (it always helps to start something on the first of a month) I pledge to:

- spend at least one hour each day reading

So many evenings after work I find myself puttering around or zoning out in front of the three channels I get clear which are usually airing the same Seinfeld episode, when there are so many things I should/could/would rather be reading. (Was that sentence too long?) I was in Chapters yesterday and came across dozens of books I would love to read. I decided that I need to set aside time to make reading a priority.

In the grand scheme of my day, an hour is no big deal and I anticipate that I will begin to crave that hour. The key, is good books. I plan on having several available in case one fails to keep my attention (I'm looking at you Love in the Time of Cholera!).

I'm a 'librarian', for Pete's sake, this shouldn't even need to be a goal! Oh, I've decided to use quotations around the word librarian whenever I use it to refer to myself. I enjoy the idea of playing the 'librarian' card when it suits me. Like now.