convenience-store resolutions

[asakiyume]

(Which, one hopes, aren't resolutions of convenience...)

I went into a convenience store on January 1 to buy a bottle of red wine, and the guys at the counter and I had a round of happy-new-year wishes, and I said something like, "May it be a good one," and then one of the guys said,

"Yeah, my resolution this year is not to settle." Good resolution, I thought (though--because I'm constitutionally unable to keep from putting riders and qualifications on statements like this--I think "settling" is created in your own head. The same action can be settling, or not, depending on how you make up your mind to feel about it.)

"Mine is to do the hard things," I said. "Here's to success for both of us."

"Yeah!" he said.

----

So yeah, that's my amorphous, large-scale goal.

Slightly less amorphous than that is the goal to make significant progress on my new novel. I didn't do too well with that goal last year (didn't do much writing at all last year), but maybe this year will be better.

Even more fine-grained goal: utilize my library's free Mango Language account to learn Spanish. I've started on this! Maybe I should make the goal to do a lesson at least three times a week. What I can say so far that I didn't already know: Estoy bien.

I may also work up a running goal (meaning: a goal related to running) but I haven't got one yet.

Comments

[bummble.livejournal.com]

I'm learning Spanish this year too!

Started a bit later than I'd planned (originally wanted to begin December last year) and the way the course is laid out is a bit more vague than I'd like, but I am still enjoying it.

The comment about making a measurable goal for it is really good!
I'd planned to complete one lesson per week (32 for a whole year, so there's some room for snafus etc) but I might switch that to doing at least half an hour at least four times a week.

It's part of a far larger plan to go travelling once I've run out of pets...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hee, and your comment helped keep me on track--I think I need to make myself a strict schedule.

Traveling sounds excellent (though running out of pets sounds ... maybe a pet sitter is the answer?)

[bummble.livejournal.com]

Well - my two elderly cats died last year.
I still have a dog who is nearly 12 years old now and still going strong; she's a border collie, so probably has quite a few good years left!

But, like some people wait for their children to leave home before they start travelling around the world, I'm sort of waiting for the pets to 'leave the house'. ;-)
(have to work hard not to aquire new cats though!)

My dog is not the easiest person in the world, so apart from the odd weekend with my mother, not really suitable for a pet sitter.

Besides, I'm hoping to be away for months (probably volunteering somewhere, ecological farms etc), maybe more - and it would feel weird leaving a loved one behind that I can't communicate with.


I'm not in a hurry; not really ready yet at the moment anyway.
Still lots of yarn to knit here, lots of Spanish to learn, and, er, some money would come in handy, too. ;-)

Right, I finished one chapter of my Spanish book this afternoon; going to do a quick browse of the first couple of pages of the next one before I go to sleep!