new year/new ideas/etc

I don't usually do this. actually, I've never done this, but a post from my uncle got me thinking that it might be a good idea to spend some time thinking about some ways to improve in 2011. not that I haven't thought of ways in the past, but I've certainly never written them down. There are only a few things that I actually write down, and most of them have to do with her, so, like I said, new territory. I would like that add that that last stat isn't entirely my fault. My Greek professor (who also taught a number of other classes I took) told us not to take notes but just remember, which I did for the most part. As an aside, the business world isn't that conducive to "just remembering". I found that out.

Ahem. *Trumpet Blast*. Here are the ways that I hope to improve this year:

Shipping


Seth Godin talks about this all the time, which means it's a good idea. Seriously though, the most important part of any idea is actually making it happen. My head is constantly full of ideas, but there are only a few things that I haven't left half-done or half-engaged during the course of my life. I just lose interest, which is often just another phrase for "I'm lazy". I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins, where personal laziness ends and being in the wrong line of work begins, but I want to get better at pulling good ideas out of my head and into reality, into a state of being. I don't just mean in my work either.

Money/Bling


I'm not very good at budgeting/saving. There are various reasons for my wanting to improve this, and while they are far from unimportant, they will be given the luxury that so many of us ought to treasure more than we do: anonymity. I've set for myself a $50/week budget. I'm not sure if I can do it, but I'm going to try. The thing about New Year's resolutions is that people usually give up when they fail the first or second or third time, which has never made any sense to me because they should be going after things that are actually helping them grow and mature, things that actually improve them, and if they are, setbacks can take on a cathartic property. She would like/laugh at that sentence. I've wondered before if all relationship wisdom could be boiled down to needing to find someone who cares about sentence structure and expression as much as you do. I'm glad it can't. The cycle of failure/assessment/struggle-to-improve is not only a human approach, it is THE human approach to anything. Imperfection breeds progress. At least when it comes to budgets. So back to the real world, all that to say, it will be hard to get myself down to $50 a week, but I'm going to try. My most recent, and most permanent, abandonment of cigarettes will certainly aid in this quest. Mark Twain once said "Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world to do. I should know, I've done it a thousand times". That quote always makes me laugh.

The Rest


I'm basically already tired of thinking of categories, so the rest will be Faulknerian. That was a literary reference that is intended to make you think I'm smarter than I am. Eat it up. Please. For my sake.

I want to get better at focusing on the aspects of work that suck the most. I'm so good at putting off the painful, ugly assignments that I get for work and, instead, crushing all of the more enjoyable stuff. That needs to change. Not really much else I can say about that.

Ok, I'm tired of reading this and you're tired of writing it, or is it the other way around? Either way, that's enough for now.

2011 is going to be a really big year for me, and I'm thrilled. Actually, I'm Tyler. If you got that, I'm sorry, I've looked but I don't think there's a cure for people like us. Take care, and as fuel for your New Year, I'll leave you with the send off I left my college class with, which apparently made it to our graduation video despite my rather altered state:

be brief, and be brilliant.