2011 Resolutions

**Wow, this year in review stuff is taking up a lot of posts. I am nothing if not thorough.**

As you can deduce, I enjoy a good list and I usually love to make many resolutions, most of which I will never keep. In fact, every year since I was 15, I have written “FLOSS EVERY DAY” and “DRINK MORE WATER” on my goal lists and not one year have I ever followed through.

Going back into my old diaries, here are some actual resolutions I made when I was younger.

- Smile more – I guess I was pretty scowly as a teenager.
- Be more discreet at work – I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, everyone knew my business, my crushes, the new shoes I bought…open book. Mostly because I really thought my life was so great that everyone would want to know about it. “Thank goodness I got that out of my system,” she typed on her blog.
- Reduce snacking between meals – I’ve actually managed to cut out meals altogether this year. They were really getting in the way of my snacking.
- Read War and Peace – I actually wrote “This may be too ambitious” beside it. Turns out I was right.
- Wear more accessories – I really had a clear perception of what was important in life when I was 21.
- Cut out mayonnaise – ha!
- Become ambidextrous
- Don’t lock my keys in the car this year – from 1999 – 2001 that was a bi-monthly occurrence.
- NO parking or speeding tickets – I should have put some specific parameters on that one, because it proved to be pretty difficult. How about no tickets that result in demerit points? How about no tickets from male police officers?
- Pick up dropped change – This one makes me laugh out loud. How cheap am I?! I actually put this on a goal list to focus on that year? Ridiculous.

For 2011, I am going to change things up a bit and admit to myself that I usually don’t have much success with these lists, so I am going to simplify. A couple years ago, I decided to focus on one word and concept to steer my day-to-day actions. In 2007, that word was PRECISION. It is not a co-incidence that I was studying to be a librarian at the time. But I found it helpful to just run that word over in my head from time to time. I’ll tell you what – the numbers of things I forgot dropped drastically that year.

This year, I think it might be time to focus on PATIENCE. This is a very difficult thing for me to commit to and it seems to go against my entire personality. I’m a fast-paced gal. I talk fast, I walk fast, I sometimes can’t fathom why people would do things in a way that is opposite to the way I do things, I despise lateness and I am easily frustrated sometimes.

However, I’ve heard that patience is a virtue and I can see how it would be kinder to be more patient. When I’m impatient to people in my life, it doesn’t mean I don’t love them, but it may look that way, so I should change that. PATIENCE. Ok, I can do this. Just think ‘PATIENCE’. One day at a time. Oh, come on! Why is my internet so slow!?! Oh, one more thing, just because I am trying to be a better person, this is not a free pass for you to be late because I can’t yell at you anymore. I’m looking at you, Paul. Let’s meet halfway here, people.