Just Don't Call Them Resolutions!

A new year. Again. Amazing, really.

I come into 2011 with mixed feelings.

On the one hand I feel quite blah because there are a range things going on with people close to me that aren't particularly cheering and accordingly it's just not possible to be totally rah-rah-2011! about the whole thing.

On the proverbial other hand, however, I am looking forward to a year with not quite so much physical upheaval - having moved house three times in 2010 it would hardly be possible for there to be more - as an opportunity to just get on with things. Get things done. Not waste so much time. Savour things more. Enjoy.

The art of getting things done does, of course, start with a list. A list I refuse to call my new year's resolutions because it came together more organically and actually well before the beginning of the new year. And I don't believe in resolutions and never keep them.

On the list, in no particular order:

- blog more. I have had this blog for 7 and a half years, and probably posted less in 2010 than in any other year before. It's no coincidence that I also wrote very little at all (other than for work) in 2010. I still have posts and comments and stories spinning around in my head, but none ever seemed to make it to paper in 2010. I also read less last year, having struggled to find things I was in the right mood for - therefore reading little bits of lots and finishing very little - and for the first time I can remember, regularly falling asleep without even picking up a book. It was a combination of working, moving, laziness and lack of any kind of discipline (all to be common themes throughout the list). At the same time that lack of discipline also had me starting 2 other blogs in 2010, one about food, which died when selling and buying property took over my year, and one about fashion, which died with too much work. And lack of discipline. The thing with those was, though, why did I bother? I can blog about those things here. As such I've now imported the posts from those ill-fated diversions here and will make a concerted effort blog about all the things I'm interested in here instead of launching new ventures I don't have time for. I imagine some more themed posts, food, fashion, travel, music, house, all the things I've always blogged about, but with more focus and dedication. I also want to get back to reading and interacting with everyone else's blogs as well, something I've drifted away from for all those same reasons. And writing more, for myself if not for publication.

- exercise. Oh yes, that again. Let's be honest, in the last year and a half I've put on a lot of weight. I don't want to, and never will, be skinny. But I love clothes and at the moment I can't fit into a lot of mine. For all those same reasons mentioned above. Mainly the laziness and lack of discipline. I need to drop a few kilos. A dress size. Get back to normal me. Not size 10 stressed out not eating me, not size 14 lazy-arse me. Just regular size 12 me. And I'm getting older, there's no denying, so the more I let myself go the harder it is to get it back. So, exercise. More of it, more regularly. Both to lose some weight and then to keep a healthy balance with the next point...

- eating better. This is actually a two-fold goal. There's the flip-side to the exercise bit above, the needing to get healthier and lose some weight, which is obvious. But I'm not on a 'diet'. I just want to eat better in every sense of the word. Healthier, more interesting food, different food, great restaurants, good home cooking, grow my own herbs finally, all that good stuff. I want the taking up of the exercise to balance out the rich good stuff. I'm not going on a diet, I'm not giving up bread (impossible!), I'm not doing those things which I'll never stick to for long, but I am instituting three rules: 1. eat fresh whenever possible; 2. learn, for the first time in my life, portion control; and most importantly 3. don't 'waste' calories on the cheap easy crap, i.e. eat goat cheese slathered on crusty bread, not a takeaway burger.

- drink less booze. I know. This is about breaking bad habits, as much as anything else. I've fallen into bad habits, drinking too fast, drinking too regularly, drinking as a default. None of those are good for my health or general well being. Not least because it leads me to get dehydrated and sleep badly, and I need my sleep. I'm not setting any hard rules or limits on this, other than to always think about whether I actually want that glass of wine, instead of just pouring it out of habit, and then drinking it like wine, not water. And then I need to apply the same as rule number 3 for food above, don't waste time on the cheap crap. I am already being aided in this by having acquired the car and therefore now frequently being the designated driver (of myself) that I haven't been in years. Plus it'll help with the weight thing.

- get better at detaching myself from work when I'm not in the office. This is hard. But if I want time to exercise and write and go to good restaurants and get more of a life, then I need to practice doing it whenever possible. It's not always going to be possible given I co-run a business and cannot ever turn off my Responsibility Gene, but I'm going to try. I'm going to do my best to have a holiday in each half of 2011, rather than, as in the last couple of years, squeezing in a week when I'm about to keel over at the end of the year.

I think that's it.

I admit there is a touch of the eau de resolution about the whole thing.

I blame the time of the year.