Here I go again writing down resolutions for the new year.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I know! I’m posting this very nearly on the last day of the first month of the year. Resolutions should come before the new year or very soon after the start of the year, not at the end of the first month.
I mean, after all, most people have made and broken their resolutions a dozen times over by now.
But I was tied up on the job search and other projects so I could not get to it the way I wanted.
And, yes, I considered making “improving time management” one of my resolutions. … But I ran out of time.
Each year most of us look at what we have done during the past year, perhaps cringe a bit, and vow never ever to do those things again.
We vow to stop smoking. To drink less. To work out more and drop those nagging 20 pounds. We promise to take more time for our families, for ourselves. We pledge to be better in everything we do.
But it hardly works out the way we plan.
That is OK. We are human. We are not perfect. A few flaws are part of our character.
And so is trying to fix those flaws.
Here are my resolutions for 2011. Well, my resolutions for 11 months of 2011, anyway:
1) Find fulfilling, meaningful, suitable work. I have been out of work since March 2009. That is much, much too long to be out of work, trust me. It is has been financially and emotionally devastating and demoralizing and frustrating and disheartening … you get the point.
Not long ago I saw a television news story about the passage of the extension of unemployment insurance benefits as part of the continuation of the Bush-era tax breaks. A fellow was interviewed who had just been laid off and said that if he did not have a job after a year, then he did not deserve the benefits.
Of course, he was JUST laid off as the economy seems to be making a move upward. It would have been interesting to talk to that guy if he had been in my situation.
I want to work and work soon. I have been working since I was a teen. I worked a green chain at 16 or 17 and held down three part-time jobs while going to college fulltime. I know how to work. And I want to work. I just need a chance to prove myself to others.
2) Be more diligent at updating this blog and my for-fun blog, “Coffeehouse Observer.” I wrote in an earlier blog entry that was going to be my No. 1 resolution for 2011 (“Vowing to be a better blogger … I promise,” “Letters From Away,” Jan. 1, 2011), but then realized there is nothing more important to me than finding work, as it has been for nearly two years. Being a more diligent blogger will have to be No. 2.
A head cold sort of derailed that effort for a while, putting me behind in other things that are of higher priority, such as finding a job. I blogged about that, too. (“Polishing up vow to be a better blogger – I promise … again,” “Letters From Away,” Jan. 13, 2011)
3) Which all sort of brings me to Resolution No. 3 – stop putting off eliminating procrastination from my life. Yeah, perhaps it should be No. 1 – especially since we are into the third week of the new year and most people have already broken their resolutions – but at least it made the top five.
Most years I make at least five resolutions. I can prove it because I’ve written about resolutions in the past as a blogger and before:
“Resolving to avoid resolutions this year … or not,” “Letters From Away,” Dec. 31, 2009 and
“Tips for sustaining a job search in 2010,” “Letters From Away,” Jan. 2, 2010.
This year, three seems plenty.
I resolve to do my best to follow the spirit – if not the letter – of these resolutions and perhaps dip into the old resolutions that have gone unfulfilled. And as with most things, better late than never at all.
My name is Keith Michaud and this is “Letters From Away,” a blog written by a Mainer living outside the comfortable and sane confines of New England. The blog is intended for Mainers, whether they live in the Pine Tree State or beyond, and for anyone who has loved ’em, been baffled by ’em or both. Ayuh, I am “from away.” Worse still, I live on the Left Coast – in California. Enjoy! Or not. Your choice.
Letters From Away 