Let loose, or hold firm?

I’ve never been fond of New Year’s resolutions. When I see a deficiency in my life, I don’t need to wait to fix it on January 1st. I can wait for any date. Usually I let it slide right on through winter and into spring. So instead of listing resolutions, I’ll enumerate a few items I’ve already been working on (since sometime after last spring) that I hope to actually do something about in 2007 (or beyond), in no particular order:

1. Morning exercise. I did pretty well on my walks with Halley throughout the year until a few weeks ago. Then came the big snow storm, followed by the wind storm and the children’s winter break. When I don’t have to get the kids ready for school in the morning, it’s easy to rationalize sleeping in, and then suddenly I don’t have time for anything. Back to the regimen on Tuesday.
2. Alcohol. Daily. No, seriously, we’re going to knock off the wine for a while. Not so much because it’s a New Year as for the fact that it will be after New Year’s Eve, and we need a break. This whole holiday season we might as well have been shooting up ethanol. If in vino veritas, then we’re about to drown in veritas. As Jack Nicholson said, we can’t handle our truth — so there’ll be dry days ahead, not sure for how long. Then we’ll attempt moderation again. “Again” referring to “attempt”, BTW.
3. Transparency, honesty, openness, and all that crap. If you have to talk about it, you aren’t doing it — which is why it’s on this list.
4. Money. More cash is always nice, as long as I can sell service instead of soul.
5. Doing more of what I love. As long as I don’t run number 4 down to zero. Blogging. Reading great books. Getting to know great bloggers. Writing. Creating free software. Learning new things.
6. Spending time with my family. Almost too much of that lately. Nah, you can’t get too much of that.
7. More time alone with my wife. Anyone know a good babysitter on Bainbridge Island? I’m probably asking the wrong crowd …

How about you? What are you working on, or planning to start working on, as we enter the 2007th year after the backwards-projected, imaginary beginning of our current calendar?

“Resolution” is from the Latin stem resolvere (“loosen”). It became applied to the act of solving a problem by reducing it to its parts. As such, it could also refer to the final decision in a meeting — the manner in which the question was resolved. The habit of making such decisions final led to “resolution” taking on the meaning of “holding firmly” — the opposite of its original, alternative meaning. So which way will it be for you?