You say you want a resolution

Happy New Year to everyone!

Yes, I do realize that the first post of 2007 has a title that is a horrible Beatles' pun. Come on, like you'd expect anything else from me! But, it is the time of the year for making resolutions. I'm not one to normally make them to be honest with you. I'd like to think it's because I don't feel like there's ever anything I need to change. But it's most likely a fatalistic reaction to the realization that I probably won't keep them anyway so I just cut out the middleman from the outset.

Which brings me to this year - I figured in light of the way things have gone for me over the last few months maybe it was time to actually make a resolution or two and actually try to stick to it. So that's the plan. Who knows if I'll be successful, but I thought it would be a good idea to at least set some goals.

First off, I resolve to try to do a better job of being optimistic. I've often said that we percieve our own reality. Therefore, if we see the glass as half-full, it most likely is. And yet, I've had a hard time following my own advice in recent years. I've found myself too often sliding into my own prison of self-pity. Instead of focusing on what is going right or looking forward, I tend to focus on what isn't right or looking backwards. You can only imagine how well that's working for me. So, I'm going to try to reverse that. From this point forward, I'm going to try to be the person I never actually let myself be for one reason or another.

Secondly, I resolve to try to incorporate this new attitude into my writings. A friend of mine who reads this blog (see, there are some people that actually do) pointed out to me that my posts are "a bit gloomy." It's always been my contention that, as a writer, I tend to write better when I'm feeling "a bit gloomy." I think that's true. But I also think that's a crutch. I should be able to articulate my thoughts just as well regardless of the mental state that's producing them. So hopefully, you the reader, will be able to see the results of this.

Finally, I resolve to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and others who are important to me. There was a time this summer when I pretty much lost all contact with all but a few people. It was my own decision. I decided, instead, to focus all of my attention on one particular person at the expense of others. As a result, I fell out of touch with several people who I consider to be important. Luckily, those fences have since been mended and things appear to be fine. But still, it never should have come to that. Besides, in recent weeks, I have come in contact with a few people who I hadn't talked to in years. Cyperspace has certainly shrunk this great big world of ours! It's been nice catching up with them, albeit rather briefly. Also, I ran into a good friend I hadn't seen or even talked to in about three years on New Year's Eve. It felt so good to reconnect. All of this made me realize that I had been negligent in my duties as far as keeping in touch and not falling off the face of the Earth. So, it's my hope that I can do a far better job on that front in the coming year as well.

Of course I am also resolving to eat better, exercise more, take better care of myself, finish my writing projects, and just be more productive overall. But I figured those are pretty much standard resolutions and not the most interesting ones. If nothing else, my pursuit of accomplishing those might just provide some fodder for this blog. Who knows, they might turn out to be the most interesting ones after all.