Each year, many of us resolve to make changes in our lives. We promise ourselves that this is the year we will keep our resolutions and improve our lives as a result. Too often, though, we break our promises to ourselves and let our best intentions fall victim to the bustle of everyday life. We expect too much of ourselves and as a result, we fail. Instead of resolutions, we expect revolutions. We think that we can make major changes in our lives by simply deciding to do so. Too often, it proves to be too much for us to take.

This year, I have decided to make evolutions, not resolutions. I resolve to evolve my life. I’ll make an ambitious list, but I will promise myself to take deliberate steps toward achieving them in the long term. That way, I will not have failed when I give in to temptation, or when I forget to remember my list. I will simply steer back toward the end goal, constantly adjusting my heading like navigating a boat that is influenced by the tides, the currents, the waves and the weather.

I will share my list with the world now. Keep in mind that some of the items on my list are really tasks… big, ugly “to-do” things that have been haunting me for months or years. So…. here goes nothing:

• Health: I’m currently at my highest weight ever. 230+ pounds to be vaguely precise. While the weight/height ratio charts that I have seen indicate my ideal weight to be 175 pounds, my personal goal is to break 200. I’ll do that by actually making use of the elliptical trainer that I bought 8 months ago. I’ll watch what I eat. I’ll eat more healthy foods and less fatty, sugary things. Starting Monday.
• Procrastination: I’m always putting things off. I’ve been meaning to start an exercise/diet for months now and I keep saying I’ll start on Monday, but Monday never comes. I’ll force myself not to procrastinate. Starting Monday.
• Clutter: One of the things that drives me totally crazy is clutter. I’m also the most guilty cause of this around my house. My shed, my workshop (storage room), and my desk are all VERY good examples of areas of the homestead totally under my control that are also totally out of control. This year, I vow to take steps to clean them up. I’ll throw stuff away that I forgot I had. I’ll find a place for everything and keep everything in its place. Starting Monday or Tuesday.
• Scanning photos: This is another of those big ugly to-do items I mentioned. I’ve got all of my parents’ old photo albums and all of my wife’s old photo albums that I’ve been meaning to scan, digitally enhance, organize and catalog. This has been a pet project for a couple of years and I have made some progress in spurts. Once I get that procrastination thing under control, I’ll attack this one. Starting Wednesday.
• Learning to play guitar: A few years ago, we bought our son an electric guitar for Christmas. At the same time, I got an acoustic guitar. I’ve always thought it would be cool to be able to strum a few chords, howling out an off-key tune, sitting in front of a fire on summer’s eve. So far, I’ve been able to accomplish the off-key tune, the howling, and sitting by a fire-barrel on a summer’s eve, but my past intentions of learning to play the guitar fell victim to my procrastination addiction. So, starting next week, I’ll dust off the “Learn to Play Guitar” CD’s I purchased, and finally learn how to strum a tune. Hmmm… maybe I’ll start the week after that.
• Speaking of CD’s I’ve purchased, I also bought a bunch of “Learn How to Speak French” CD’s that are sitting amongst the clutter somewhere in the house. When I find them (once I defeat my procrastination addiction and my clutter affliction), I’ll start learning how to parlez francais, eh. Non?

January 8th may seem a little late to publish a post about New Years resolutions, but I kept putting it off. I’ll have to stop doing that, starting Monday.