The New Year is fast approaching. As a result, I thought it would be nice to have a new topic on New Years Resolutions.

I am also interested to know if we generally keep to these resolutions or are they just something we say. Are New Years resolutions something you do or not? Something you do, as a matter of tradition without any serious intent to follow through, or are they really something you try to stick too? And, if you do try to stick to them, do you often succeed?

So,

What are your New Years Resolutions for 2005 and will you really keep them this year?

I am pressed for time tonight (as I always seem to be lately), so I will add my own later.

Over the years I've made many New Year's resolutions. Fore example, on
New Year's Eve of 1991 I decided I'd quite smoking (starting Jan. 1st, 1992).
It didn't work out that way. I ended up taking my last drag on July 10th of 1992.

Last year my resolution was to give up coffee on the New Year. That didn't
happen. I ended up quitting coffee in June.

So, for me, I've had better luck in the summer months. Yet, planting the
seeds of change (at least in the mind) is a good New Year's tradition.

The reason New Year's resolutions are hard to keep is that they often involve denying ourselves something. I'm only going to make one resolution this year and it's going to be one of indulgence.

Over the years I have seen numerous performers in person. The list includes B. B. King, Chuck Berry (something like 40 times, I've lost count), Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, David Alan Coe, Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Ko Ko Taylor, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Stevie Wonder, The Jacksons, The Platters, Marvin Hamlisch, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Stevie Ray Vaughan (when he was playing dives for a $6.00 cover) and others.

Some I wish I had seen were Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

With retirement income what it, the price of high price of tickets, and arthritis that acts up, particularly in this cold weather, I haven't seen many live shows lately.

My New Year's resolution is to see fellow Fort Worth native Willie Nelson on his next trip to Billy Bob's (I've never seen him) and also the delightful Nora Jones.

Well, here you have it, a resolution of indulgence rather than denial. A "Bloody Mary Morning" is likely to follow.

OK Here it goes. I think I will end up using AD as a motivator this year. By posting my New Years Resolutions and Posting as they are completed, I will hopefully be more motivated to get them done through the benefit of passive peer pressure.

The most important resolution I can make is to take steps to better manage my time. The first step in that, starting when I return to work from the holiday will be to strictly limit myself to using AD in the hours of 5AM to 6:30AM each morning as I get up early enough to do a days worth of posting before leaving for work.

The second most important Resolution is that I limit my use of computer games to 6 hours a week total, and limit that time to time that is not available to working on the rest of the list. This will not be quite as hard as AD but it will be tough.

The next is that FAMILY TIME needs to be found and used ALL the TIME!! My Family deserves more hours of time from me then my politics and especially my games. They will have it. My wife will have a minimum of 1 hour each day of time with me to just be a couple. Play a card game, talk, read together, or engage in more physical activities (Like exercise ). My Child deserves more time from me and she will have at least one hour of my time daily to play games, talk, walk the dog, learn soccer of whatever.

I WILL NOT obligate myself to another project, organization, candidate, or whatever until after this entire list is completed. There is no way for my to find the hours of the day to do it all, so I have to focus my time on earning a living and being a family first and foremost. For those who have talked with me about starting this or that, I can help, both with some limited time and financial resources, but I cannot do the work myself. I have neither the skill nor the time.

I WILL clean the kitchen before I do anything else when I get home each day from work (The kitchen is my job and it regularly gets missed due to other tasks).

I WILL come up with a better way to manage time even if I have to create a monthly calender that has everything down to brushing my teeth on it.

I WILL be in bed no later then 11PM every work night.

I WILL take one day off of everything for ME each month. To use however I wish as long as it is not productive in anyway other then for my Sanity (I so hope to find it again one day).

I WILL Limit my work Schedule with my employer so that I do not work more then 8 Jobs a week. Though this will limit my income to slightly better then past years it will enable everything else on the list to have the time to happen.

I WILL take one week of my vacation this year at my Mother's house to visit and to help her with projects. However, the other week WILL be with my Wife and Child and ONLY my wife and Child. It is time this family got to have a real vacation, even if it limited to the house.

As for the stuff that needs to be organized:

1> The cabinet I bought for the Kitchen months ago will be built and installed before the end of January.

2> The back porch will be insulated, and a new electrical ckt will be added before the end of January.

3> The truck I purchased will get new tires, a full tune up, improved struts, an alarm system and a CD player as well as an Inverter before the end of February.

4> The last Ladder, the Drill, and the other odds and ends needed for the truck will be purchased before the end of February.

5> I will obtain my business licence (For the general services part of my future business), hire an accountant, and establish my business on the computer with Quickbooks, a contact management and time management software package, as well as get a file cabinet setup before the end of February.

6> The attic job I started, will be completed, including the last bit of insulation and flooring, adding the electric ckts and installing organizing shelves and hangers by the end of March.

7> all items stored in the basement will be moved to the attic and organized by March.

8> all cabinets (with the exception of the one with the counter) will be removed from the basement and trashed by the end of March.

9> The cabinet with the counter will be removed from the wall in the basement by March.

10> The basement walkout will be torn down, with the doorway blocked up and the stairs rock hammered out by the end of April.

11> The old concrete in the back yard will be rock hammered out by the end of April.

12> The Basement Bath will be installed by the end of April.

13> The Basement water proofers will be hired by the end of April. (or after the bath is complete)

13> The pad will be poured for a large shed by the end of May.

14> The pad for the new garage/Shop/Carports will be poured by the end of May.

The underground electric, cable, phone, alarm, and network cables will run for the new garage feeds by the end of May (will need to rent a Ditchwitch).

15> A Dumpster will be rented and a storage unit will be rented by the end of May.

16> The old garage will be torn down by the end of June.

17> The new garage will be completed by the end of August.

18> The old concrete wall on the driveway will be rock hammered out by the end of August.

19> The New Driveway will be poured and finished by the end of September.

20> The Finished basement will be completed before Christmas 2005.

OK, that covers the Business and the House. Wonder where the time will come from for my political activism???? I guess 2005 will be the year of the Family for me. 2006 can be the year of the Reformer (or perhaps the year of the house addition). Regardless, the political world will not end without me.

2005 WILL be the year I earn the Title of "Super Dad" and the year I truly become, and in someways surpass, the great men of my family that have gone before like my Grandfathers and my Father. I will be, a "Man" as my father believed "Men" should be. It is unfortunate that it took me so long to really understand, but hopefully, as the years go by he will be able to look down on me and see that I finally figured it out. Wisdom just takes time and experience.

There is no better way to honor his memory then to live like he did. To Follow his father's example in most things and to be better then his father in others.

Overland GIVE UP NOW!!! Save yourself.
Wow what a list. I will be watching just to see what you acheive.
You may become the Greatest acheiver on AD ever!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!
Is there a nomination for the greatest keeper of New Year's resolutions in AD.

I usually set 10 -15 goals per year at New Year's. I usually keep anywhere from 2-5 of them, and while it's not perfect I still believe in setting myself goals. I'd rather set goals and only complete a few rather than set none and accomplish nothing.

New Year's is my favorite holiday. I love the symbolism of a new start and a blank page ahead. I really enjoy the process of choosing my new year's goals.

I'm still revising mine for 2005 -- I'll come back and post when they're done.

I quit smoking last year. not a puff since--Dont even miss them. Good thing because even after a year breathing is not at optimal.
I am considering adjusting my diet to about 3/4 vegetarian. Which might be hard as i hate vegetables. I eat only salad corn and snow peas with the occasional carrot.
But I got some great sounding recipes so i think I will do well. i will retain fish though. mostly salmon and tuna.
I also plan to remove processed flour and Sugar from my diet as well. Doc says diabetes is not that far away if I keep going.

By the end of the year I will have a finished rough cut of an animated short , one rough draft of a story i have been dragging my heels on and I want to learn to weld well enough to start making bike frames. Both for bicycles--custom cruiser styles and a hard tail frame for a chopper for a motorcycle I have.

Financially i should clear off all my debt by May except for student loans which will take some time to kill.

If I can clear some things I hope to also have a prototype for a handheld computer that will be targeted at education with the hopes of allowing texts to be downloaded and thereby reducing costs overall for schools. It will also take advantage of the new methods for educating people thru the use of interactive animated lessons.--and of course durable as all get out-which with the destructive potential of my son will hopefully produce a finished product that can survive the rigors of school life. It will be wireless and linux based. With the rise in popularity of downloadable books perhaps I can find a market niche not smothered by the big guys--my goal is absolute cut rate prices--real Wal Mart low low low.

I dont believe in setting a New Years resolution, and I find the concept sort of weird. Self-improvement is year round, if you feel like cutting back on something or doing more of something, then why is the New Year the time to start thinking about it?

That being said, I think I need to start volunteering more.

I understand your point. I just see it differently. People generally try to plan out what they will do when they start something new. In this case, we're starting a New Year, so I planned my approach to getting things done.

New years resolutions, for most people I know, are commitments they make to complete something that didn't get done the previous year. Be that a home improvement project, seeing a broadway play or quitting smoking.

I always do a New Years resolution..it is mostly tradition and symbolic. Yet I think a small dose of symbolism in your life isn't harmful

Mine this year is to get our restaurant going! Currently we are almost entirely at the mercy of another or actually others. We found the site we want..but it has to be developed which involves all the politics of city permits blah blah but most importantly it is expensive and we are trying to work a deal with the owners of the site. So we just have to sit and wait and see if they accept our offer. I hate it I feel like I am going to burst..good thing tho. they accepted or I should say were impressed by our business plan (which I wrote!) immensely and we are the first client they approved to meet with...turned away two other parties who also happened to want to turn the place into a restaurant too.

So I got a massive list of things to do..resolutions and life changes for 2005. Just waiting to hear the gun go off. I am really looking forward to this year and I think it is gonna be a good year

Here are some of my New Year's resolutions that I can share. Most of these are pretty do-able. I seem to keep refining my goal setting each year, and this year I seem to have goals that are more do-able than some in the past (like losing 40 pounds).

New Year’s Resolutions


1. Embrace the opportunity to use the gift of time to achieve my goals and dreams.
2. Pursue media and communication opportunities.
3. Quit my soda habit.
4. Reduce my sugar consumption.
5. Get up a little earlier to fit in exercise time before the kids get up.
6. Pursue social opportunities for my toddler: play dates, play groups, toddler classes, etc.
7. Support my eldest child’s guitar lessons and practice and be more consistent in enforcing homework and studying.
8. Be more diligent in keeping within a budget.
9. Give my husband positive support of his projects and goals.
10. Set aside chunks of time to help me catch up on scrapbooking.
11. Writing practice (3 handwritten pages) everyday.

I'm with kimpossible. Don't even get me started on saving up everything for a New Years Eve or Day. It's an everyday thing, trying to keep up with chaos that can happen while maintaining a sort of direction toward whatever.

The funky astrologer Brezny gave me a good one for the coming year. Has to do with keeping a couple of quotes close by, and the quotes have to do with getting the heart beat into the rhythm of the universe. K, you betcha. It's on the list.

No, really, that's a resolution I can embrace.

Just a small bit of advice - get your business incorporated first. I mean, before you do ANYTHING.

You can get a sub-chapter S or as I did, an LLC. In fact, my accountant did it as a free service. It cost me a $125 filing fee, the accountant called it in, and I walked out with my federal ID number. It's unbelievably simple.

Second, get your Quickbooks - good choice. I've been using the professional edition and it is easy and does everything.

Now, the point of why you want to do this: Much of the stuff you have on your to-do-list-from-hell may be work related (hint: is it even remotely possible the materials are work related?) and you want to purchase that as a business expense from your business account.

As a sub-chapter S or LLC, any income you receive will be tagged on top of your regular salary (assuming you have a steady job). The more you can write off, the less you will get taxed.

I did much better than expected this year and ended up with only a few hundred dollars left in my account. I wanted to show a profit (not necessarily good in the first year, but it's better if I need to get credit later), but just a small one.

So, what did I buy? Well since I own a small electrical and software engineering business (automation, robotics, test equipment, etc), I need a LOT of computer crap. So, my office looks like a DELL sales outlet. My wife has 15 times the computer she actually needs.

This year, my resolution will be to figure out how to pay for our annual Disney Cruise as a business expense.

My New Years Resolution for this year will be an important one for both myself and my family. I will try to quit all gambling, this included online poker, poker, and especially Horse Racing. This one is my main focus for the new year.

Get closer to my kids
Make my marriage better
Lose 20 lbs.
Get my overall cholesterol level under 180
Be able to run 5 miles in under 40 minutes
Have a positive attitude most of the time
Break 80 on the golf course for the first time
Learn how to play the double bass drums

What are your New Years Resolutions for 2005 and will you really keep them this year?

I've never gotten into the whole New Year's resolution thing; it seems like such a setup for failure. I'm with BoF:

Now, that's my kind of resolution!

I guess if I had to resolve anything, it's just continue trying to be a better human. Oh, and indulge! Here's to ya, BoF!

Jut a little update on my resolutions. I have been doing pretty well on the basics in the beginning. I can do better, but it's gone pretty good.

As for the dated stuff. Both Items set for January didn't happen. I have not been able to get my workload reduced at work like I wanted (yet) and there have been alot of travel jobs this month. However, even with that I had various opportunities to get those jobs done and was overwhelmed by a the sheer force of my laziness (and a good movie on TV here and there on the weekends).

As for the rest of the list that is dated we ran into two major snags.

First is money. We budgeted out what we can do and some of those major projects will not happen this year unless my employer is overwhelmed with a sense of generosity, the government decides to give me back even more money, or the lottery works out. So items on the list will have to be reduced.

The second problem is my Mom. Not that she is a problem, (Love ya Mom ) but she is buying a house on my block (hopefully the sale closes on the 4th) and there is alot of work that needs to be done to get her in there.

I figure the big list will be revamped very soon as a result.