Last year, I made 3 new years resolutions, and I managed to keep all of them, all year. First time in my 24 years that I've made it through the whole year! For the past week or so, I've been trying to think of resolutions for 2009, and I'm having a hard time doing it. Maybe you guys can help?
I did some web searching, trying to find the most popular New Years resolutions, and according to About.com (a very reliable source, no doubt), here are the top 10 American New Years Resolutions:
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Fit in Fitness
- Tame the Bulge (aka, lose weight)
- Quit Smoking
- Enjoy Life More
- Quick Drinking
- Get out of Debt
- Learn Something New
- Help Others
- Get Organized
And here's my objections to the Top 10 American New Years Resolutions:
- We're sporting a new plasma HD TV and BlueRay DVD player ... I'm going to be spending a lot of time with family and friends. No resolution needed, haha.
- If I fit anymore fitness in my life, I'll never be home to enjoy the new TV.
- Taming the bulge ... doesn't really apply (too much). Running takes care of that for me!
- Newsflash: I'm asthmatic. I don't smoke. Never have, never will.
- Enjoy life more - that's not a resolution!! Resolutions need to be tangible goals. How does one rate their amount of enjoyment? Besides, I'm a 2nd year grad student - no enjoyment allowed until 3rd year!
- I'm not a drinker, doesn't apply.
- Not in debt, doesn't apply.
- Learn something new ... I'm workin' on a PhD for God's sake.
- Help others. Ok, this might apply, but again, it needs to be a tangible, reachable goal.
- Get organized ... It would be scary if I got any more organized. I already micro-manage everything in my schedule.
And with that, I'm back to square one. No good resolutions have come to mind yet. A few thoughts I had (and shot down) were:
- Pass my oral exams - not a good resolution because failure isn't an option
- Run a marathon - not a good resolution because that's going to happen anyway!
- Run X amount of miles - that was last year's resolution (where X = 1000)! What would be an appropriate X for 2009?
- Stop being a chicken when it comes to long distance runs (Problem = not tangible!)
I'm out of ideas! Help!
6 comments:
Goals don't always need to be 'tangibile', i.e., measurable.
How would one measure "be less upset about life's little annoyances?" Should one count each time one does not honk at someone who just cut them off? Or wear a BP monitor 24/7 to see if there are fewer spikes throughout the day/week?
Goal setting can be an art as well as a science.
This is easy! Run the 2009 JFK 50 miler with Emaad and Ken.
"Quick Drinking" is a good goal, CM! (^_^) ... unless/until you fix the typo, anyway.
I think that running the VHTRC Women's Half Marathon in September would be a good goal for you --- but setting a quantitative time to shoot for there is trickier, since it's almost all trail and rather hilly (but not as rocky/rooty as the Appalachian Trail) ... you'll be moving up to a new age group, I think, where the top five times (2:06-2:10) were set by folks several of whom were 29 and will be leaving that age group ... hmmm ... you could try to win it, but that might be tough!
^z
Ken,
I think that a good resolution needs to be a tangible goal. Reachable, yes, and tangible. Otherwise, no one stands a chance of keeping a goal that isn't tangible. If you're striving towards something, it should be tangible. Why otherwise would we chart all of our miles? Or record PRs?
I think the example you gave is more of a want/dream. It's not a goal because it can't be measured!
Emaad,
Let me go on record ...
I'll consider it. Not a flat out no; I'll consider it.
I might need a few trips up to the AT so I don't chicken out on race day.
i know whatever you set your mind to do, you'll do.
Hugs hun and miss you and the family!
Luv ya,
laur
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