2011

It's a new year, and with it comes, at least in theory, a clean slate. An opportunity for a fresh start and a new direction, be it in life, or work, or anything else you might want. Setting aside how silly it is to think we need the first day of the year to start fresh, I've been thinking about what my New Years resolutions should be.

The first, if only because it's the 'easiest' is to lose 100 pounds. I've been doing Weight Watchers for a few months now, and though I've been knocked off course by the holidays, or I should say, because I turned 90 degrees either direction and ran off course for the holidays, I am starting back with it tomorrow. I also intend to join the gym in town soon. I've been intending to for a while, and it keeps getting pushed back by other things I think my money should be spent on instead. This paycheck however, I spent enough money on food and alcohol that my prioritizing skills are lacking, to put it generously.

If I want to really lose weight, and get healthy, and live the kind of lifestyle I glimpsed living out west, then I have to commit to it. As they say in Weight Watchers, it really is a way of life. It's about so much more than dieting, and tracking points. It's about deciding what life you want, and how you want to live it. As basic as it sounds, it's about deciding you don't want to be so damn fat anymore, and then committing to it like you would commit to a job, or woman, etc.

As I said, that's the easy part. I guess, if I had to put it in words, or since I'm choosing to put it into words, what I really want to resolve to do this year, is to feel like I am how other people see me. Of course, by do this year, I mean begin to do. Incremental change in that direction would be good. I have been blessed, it's no surprise, by a large and loving family. Many, if not all of these family type people seem to adore me. I don't get why. I hear what my mother tells me, that I'm a good person, and I'm generous and kind, blah blah blah. But that's not how I see myself.

I define myself, or have, not by my successes but by my failures. I have everyday proof of where I've gone wrong in life. I work a crumby job making mediocre money because I didn't try in college. I'm fat because I choose to eat so much and work out so little. I'm single and lonely because I made a bad decision for a horrible reason. To define myself in a positive way is harder for me. I'm nice, because, well, my mother said so. I'm a good guy because my uncle told me I was.

It's not that I think I'm a terrible person. I'm a pretty decent person, and I get that. But it's nothing special, it's nothing I've accomplished, and it's nothing I had to work for. I just am, because Grandpa was, because Mom was, because Jim was, and Beth and so on. And maybe looking at myself in this way is wrong. And maybe part of my resolution should be to be a little prouder of the good things I am, and a little less worried about what I haven't done. But that's not today.

Today I want to be thought of as kind because I act it, all the time. I want to be thought of as generous because I give. I have more than I need, and waste more than many ever get. That's just wrong. Today, and this year, I want to work on being more honest, more loyal, more hardworking, and more committed to myself, and my life. I want to finally, finally, finally own the skills, intelligence, and support I have in my life and get something to show for it.

I want to lose weight sure. But I want more. I want, this time next year, to be promoted to some better job. I want to have a semester of school done. I want to have paid all by student loans for a whole year, uninterrupted, so I can raise my credit, so I can keep building towards a home and a life in the ballpark of how good Jim's looks. I want to be much less single, even if I haven't found the right girl yet, I want to be looking for her, and I want to stop being distracted by the oh-so-wrong ones.

I want to feel as good as everyone who loves me thinks I am already. And when I think about why they would I want to know. I create this blog, or ones like it, many times. I write stuff about how lucky I am often. I'm inspired to be better on a regular basis. A year from now, I resolve to actually maintain the drive I feel tonight. I resolve to work harder, be better, and act more intelligently. I want to actually accomplish something. I want to act better, feel better, do better, and actually be better because of it.

We'll see, next year, how any of it goes. But I'm hopeful.

TJQ