Today Is A New Day - Just Like Tomorrow

Today is the first day of the new year. Three hundred and sixty-six days (leap year guys) from the day we collectively looked at 2012 as a new beginning and celebrated the possibilities of that new beginning. Taken on its own, it is no different than tomorrow or the next day. Today’s significance is arbitrary; based solely on our current system of measuring the earth’s trip around the sun.

There is nothing magical about this day. Nothing about today will make me a better person. That better person has to be created inside of me; I cannot rely on the day itself.

Besides, that is a lot of pressure for one day. Just like that, I am supposed to change into this idealistic version of myself. A few hours ago I was a disappointing version that was inexcusably flawed, but now I am going to be perfect from today on!

Not that I don’t see the benefit of having a day like today in our culture. It is good to have a tangible starting line. But it might be beneficial to look at each day as a new beginning; a chance to inch toward that person you eventually wish to become so that it becomes more like a process and less like an ultimatum.

I do like to use today as a starting line though. It is convenient, even if it is arbitrary.

Last year, like the past seven years, I made a series of goals to be achieved in 2012 in an effort to inch toward the person I wish to become. Today is the day for me to reflect on the progress toward those goals and set new goals for the possibility that is 2013.

Last year’s goals were to:

• Not have any energy drinks – Done. I did not have a single energy drink last year and I feel really good about that.
• Only have one soda a week – Well I made it to June on this one, but slipped when I needed a little extra caffeine to work through a four day leadership seminar with only five hours sleep in four nights. An understandable slip. I tried a few times to start over with it, but I gave up after several slips in the following months and decided to wait for the new starting line and asses the goal at this time.  It may come down to an all or nothing attitude with these kinds of items.
• Lose the 20 pounds I’ve gained since I broke my knee – I actually lost 30 pounds by June!  Grant it I have since gained 10 pounds, but that puts me at 20 pounds and a success in my book.
• Write a blog once a week – I managed to pen 36 entries here last year. Given that there are 52 weeks in a year, I ended up being 8 shy of my goal. But the idea behind the goal was to write more and get my thoughts, memories and experiences on paper (so to speak) so that I would always have them. I took a stroll through some of them over the last couple days and came across several items that I had already forgotten had happened. However mundane some of them might have been, they would have been lost forever but now I will always be able to remember this time in my life . . . so I consider 36 entries a success.
• Write a Novel in November – As November crept up on me, I found myself stressing about this item a lot. I didn’t like that pressure so as other items that I wanted to do built up around me, I decided to back off that goal.  Maybe one day I will write a novel and maybe I won’t.  Right now it is just not a priority and if it does become a priority, I don’t believe setting such a stringent deadline will be appropriate for me.  But I did get a few ideas for a story out of it and I did get to share a couple shorter stories with you all.

It certainly was not my most successful year in terms of reaching the goals that I have set out for myself, but it was forward momentum. That forward momentum is always a success in my book.

Now I must evaluate my progress and decide what my goals for this year should be. After careful thought throughout the year, I have decided on the following.

• One soda a week – I have a new approach that I wish to try to see if I can make this happen or determine if moderation just is not an option for me when it comes to soda
•  No beer – I am not nixing all alcohol from my life this year. But I recently found out I had an allergy to baker’s yeast. Apparently there is a difference between baker’s yeast and brewer’s yeast and I did not test positive for a brewer’s yeast allergy. But I am still having issues that I believe are allergy related that I have yet to get under control. So this is an experiment to see if I feel better with no brewer’s yeast in my system too.
• Visit my grandparents in Colorado at least once – It is really bad that it has come down to making this an actual goal. But I have created quite a busy life for me and that has led to me taking for granted that they are there.  I need to make more of an effort to spend time with my family and this is part of that determination.
• Visit my grandma at least 6 times – I envision an every other month sort of deal here for the same reasons stated previously
• Visit my sister in Australia – My sister is taking a year to study in Australia!  I had a friend working over there for awhile and was to slow to take advantage of that opportunity to see a new place. I will not make that mistake twice.
• Catalog my music - I am to the point where having a list of all the music I have and the mediums I have them in would be convenient - and it sounds like a lot of fun!  

And that is that. I made no goals to continue in any manner with this blog.  It is my hope that I will continue to use this medium, but maybe it won’t be as often. Certainly I would like to do the same semi-daily updates for my trip to Australia that I did with my European adventure. I guess time will tell.

Either way, I don’t think I will be posting the links to each post on my social media feed.  I got a little uncomfortable with the ‘hey look at me’ perception that I felt from doing that. Those that are interested know it is here. It has been a worthy adventure and I thank you all for sharing it with me.

Until next we meet