It’s that time of year again…time for goal setting, promise making, and resolution vowing.  I have a few reso’s myself this time.  I think I usually do.  I don’t recall last year’s.  I suspect that means I didn’t keep them.  Anyway, here’s the list for 2011.

1. Lose a pound a week. Sounds small enough until you do the math and see it leads to dropping 52 pounds.  And while my aim is to average a pound a week (don’t want to void a resolution by gaining a pound in late February or something), if I drop five in a week, I’ll still aim for one more the next.  I have plenty to lose.  Trust me, 52 pounds will still leave me well above my not-so-perfect target weight.  Like Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty”, I just want to look good naked…or have enough of a view to know how I look naked.  (There are supposedly feet down there, too.  Too much?  Let’s move on.)  The diet (Weight Watchers) starts Monday.
2. Write 100 words every day. Paltry?  Yes.  Profound?  Definitely.  I’m installing a triple-count penalty for missed days; if I miss a day, I write 300 the next day — not just 200 — to compensate.  No building up ahead of time either.  If I write 2000 tomorrow, the next day I still need my 100.  I just need to get writing every day.  (I confess, I didn’t do it yesterday, so it’s 300 today…but I’ve not yet made it to bed to separate the days, so let’s move on.)
3. Read a novel and two shorts each month. I’m a slow reader.  Now that I have my Kindle, though, I’ll be able to keep my stuff at my fingertips and make progress.  No reading = no writing…or at least poor writing.
4. Exercise twice a week. I leave the definition of “exercise” vague because I’m not expecting miracles.  Beginner’s yoga, a walk, the elliptical, strenuous ping-pong…anything better than the walk-to-the-fridge routine I’ve been on.
5. Get organized. I’m a scattered individual.  “Chaos Out of Chaos” is pretty descriptive of me.  I need to clean out my car, my classroom, all my closets, and redo my computer files…and that’s just January.  I need to start filing instead of piling and get papers graded in less than a week.

Five resolutions.  That’s a lot for a guy that has never followed through with one before.  I guess it’s like planting a lot of seeds hoping one or two might grow.