The obligatory post about New Year's Resolutions

First, let me just say that I will resist the urge to list all the impossible bad habits that I wish I didn't have, and how, because it's the first day of the year, I'm going to decide to change all of them. Thus, I will not resolve to lose all the weight that I am unnecessarily, and dangerously carrying around. Nor will I write a million dollar best seller that will be optioned by a movie studio and make me filty rich beyond my dreams. I won't travel to exotic foreign places such as Sri Lanka or Machu Pichu. And after 43 years of living as a slob and considering fast food a delectable alternative to going grocery shopping and cooking, I will not magically turn into Martha Stewart (I don't even like crafts).

However, this time of year does seem to encourage some people to evaluate their lives, and ponder making changes for the best. The problem is in making these gigantical declarations to make impossible changes. How can we succeed? It sets us up for failure, at least me. You see, I don't have a realistic set of expectations, and definitely, the plans start with the fatal words, "I wish...."

Therefore, I resolve this year to eat healthier as often as I can (if that means sitting down to dinner and ordering water instead of Coke, so be it). I will finish my novel and publish it, even if publishing means posting the PDF here. I will take one gratuitous trip somewhere, even if it means I drive up into the mountains of Georgia instead of a more coveted trip to say, New York. And finally, I will paint my living room. Not exactly Martha, but I might even get all wild and paint one wall red.

So that's it. I think that maybe writing down some goals that I can work on may be a better ticket to good health, both mental and physical, than sitting by the mimosa this morning (hey, why waste the leftover champagne?) dreaming BIG without any plans for execution.

Good luck to me.