Or maybe not. I've got a Wiccan friend who posted "Happy New Year" to her facebook on Halloween, so I guess New Years Resolutions could be in order now depending on your personal calendar - lol!
Seriously though, I had to fill out my professional goals for the 2012 year for human resources recently. It got me thinking along those lines in other aspects of my life. I've never really done New Years Resolutions much because for whatever reason I always thought of those as "negative" resolutions - like you were supposed to resolve to give up something or not do something. And it always seemed that people were choosing something very broad like "weight-loss," or "save more money," or "stop smoking," or something similar without any associated ideas about how to go about those things. But, the form at work was different. It required you to pick achievable (and specific) goals for each of the three areas: teaching, research, and service. And then at the end of the year you have to fill out another form explaining how you did or did not achieve those goals. It's a better system than me sitting there going, "I'm going to get more research done this year" (the standard new year's resolution style of things). Instead, I have to say exactly what I am going to do this year - publish this or that article, attend this or that conference.
Put another way, I am henceforth viewing New Years Resolutions as yearly "bucket lists" of things I want to get done during that year. I'm still working all the categories out, but thus far my fitness goals are the most clearly defined. They were not until just a day or two ago when I found out about a 15K race in Dothan in January (that's about 9 miles). There's a half marathon in Bainbridge in April, so that 9 mile distance would be a good intermediate distance between 6.2 miles and the 13.1 miles for the half. So, for 2011, I achieved my base goal of running in a 5k (3.1 miles) race. My goal for the rest of 2011 is to run a 10k in December (I've run 5 miles a couple times now, so I have to add another mile between now and December). Then my 2012 goals are the 15k at the end of January, and the half in April.
I'm not far off of swimming a mile in the pool, so achieving that before the new year is another 2011 goal.
My swim goals for 2012 are still nebulous, but so far include swimming in a swim meet. Any swim meet. I just have no idea how to go about that one.
I still very much want to do a sprint triathlon (1/4 mi swim, 12-20mi bike (depending on race), and 3.1 mi run). All very doable on their own, but put together I don't know. Plus, I still need a bike! It feels good to have goals though, and accountability for those goals, which is what this post is all about. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
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