5 Reasons I Never Make New Year's Resolutions
I am perfect. Doubt it, just ask me.
For some reason the flipping of a calendar page never made me yearn to change anything. I've also never been a smoker, drinker, or drug addict. My metabolism works ok, I don't gamble, and I'm fair-to-middlin' honest.
It's not that I don't understand the need to stop spray tanning and robbing banks while smoking some crack-meth-heroin combination. I've known people who totally needed to make some major changes; one of my coworkers would be a lot easier to deal with if they learned to tell the truth.
1) I'm a lazy over-achiever. I do what needs to be done. I try and do it to the best of my ability because I don't want to do it twice. I assume workloads that aren't my own if I think it will aid my functioning in the future. I'm currently re-writing part of my company's training materials because I just had to train someone for another store and realized how outdated some of the stuff was. In the long run, it's easier to fix it now than to edit it as I train the next person.
2) I have a libertarian outlook. As long as what you do doesn't affect me adversely (say that 5 times fast), I don't care. The other side of that coin is that I try to keep my activities within a realm of being acceptable. If I have a party, I invite all the neighbors. I don't want them irritated by the noise. If your vices don't have any impact on my life and mine on yours, what does it matter?
3) I try to fix problems as they come up. When I was told I had high cholesterol, I didn't wait until December 31st to change my eating habits. I may procrastinate with the best of them, but I fix what has to be fixed. One of my recent hubs is about realizing we have too many cats. Are we going to throw them out into the cold? No, but we're sure not going to go grab any strays to add to the collection.
4) I've always been rather conservative. Not politically, but socially and economically. I never went out and partied hard and developed a host of horrible vices and/or contracted diseases that don't go away. I took it easy, moved slowly, and have remained on an even keel. I'm happy, healthy, and as well adjusted as anyone can be in this insane world.
5) A calendar date doesn't make any difference. If you've been good in 2011, you'll be good in 2012. If you were an evil, murderous cretin, it's not going to change overnight. The things I have changed in my life have taken time. I used to have an extremely short temper. Years of owning an arcade and working with kids mellowed me. I didn't start out with that as a goal, it just happened along the way.
Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals. My being on Hubpages is a recognition that I have been lazy and haven't been writing much lately. I used to write two monthly columns on the arcade business a month for a couple of different magazines. I got used to sitting down and writing quickly and efficiently. Since August 2009 (when I closed my arcade), I've been sitting around saying, "I need to finish my book." I still do. I recognize that and have gotten my ducks lined up so I can jump on it soon. Maybe tomorrow, but it has nothing to do with it being 2012 or January 1st or anything other than the time has come/to say fair's fair/to pay the rent now/to pay our share. That's me channeling some Midnight Oil from my youth (if you suddenly got confused).
Happy New Year and such!
PS My wife just said, "People are going to hate this, it's you saying, 'Look at me, I'm awesome.'" That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is don't feel pressured to come up with something to change in your life if you think you're doing ok! And don't wait for an excuse to wait before making the needed changes.
