January 1st of this year I posted a fairly aggressive list of New Year’s Resolutions. So how did I do? Well, I’ve only really succeeded at one of the resolutions. I guess that is better than none, right? It is now coming to the close of the year 2009 so I figured I’d list them all out again and see what happened.
1. Running / Training
STATUS: SUCCESS
For this resolution I had several sub-goals. They were:
- Run the 15k portion of the Pensacola Double Bridge Run – DONE!
- Run in a half-marathon – I’m actually registered and ready to run in the Kaiser Realty Coastal 1/2 Marathon this saturday (November 28, 2009). I’ve trained very hard for this and am ready. I did have a running partner, my father in law, who unfortunately is having some medical problems which will prevent him from running with me. I know he is going to get back to it quickly though and we’ll soon be running together again. I’ll post my results next week!
- Train to run in a marathon for 2010 – I had hoped to already be past the half marathon at this point, but I’m fully confident that I’ll be able to run in a marathon next year. The Pensacola Marathon has been moved to November so I may be picking another one that is in the first half of the year. We’ll see.
2. Scripture Memorization
STATUS: FAILURE
I had a fairly lofty goal of memorizing the entire Gospel of John. Later in the year I had actually modified this goal of memorizing just the portion of John that is commonly held as Jesus’s Farewell Discourse (John 13:31 – John 17:26). So how did I do? Terrible. I had memorized most of John 14 before the start of the New Year, but haven’t only made it to that entire chapter… and that is a bit rusty. So is there any hope? I believe I might be able to get another chapter (15) under my belt if I really get to it, but I seriously doubt I could manage the entire section. That’s OK, though, I’m still forging ahead even if at a snails pace.
3. Obtain my 2nd degree black belt in TaeKwonDo
STATUS: FAILURE
I got as far as contacting my old studio and inquiring about times and cost. I don’t really have the finances in order to be able to drop money into something that I’m not going to stick with and I don’t think I would have devoted the time into this that I needed to. So… maybe next year!
4. Try to write a book
STATUS: FAILURE
LOL – that’s about all I have to say. Attempted? No. Going to? Probably not.
5. Pay Off Debts
STATUS: FAILURE
Well, we made some really good progress in the first part of the year and paid of a couple of our debts. Yay! However, the second half of the year (following the flooding of our old house and subsequent search for new headquarters) has gone miserably. Not only have I not made progress towards this goal, I’ve gone pretty behind on several of the debts and am feeling like a terrible failure at anything having to do with finances at the moment. At this point the only thing I’m holding on to is the hope of another decent income tax return to get our heads above water again. Sigh
6. Improve Church Website
STATUS: FAILURE
The site is pretty much the same as it was. No work done, no time, no effort. Again… sigh.
7. Learn entire 48 Tai Chi form
STATUS: FAILURE
Well, I learned about the first 12 steps but that’s about it. This went the path of so many other resolutions and just fizzled out after a month or so. I could conceivably knock this one out before the end of the year, but that would take a pretty focused effort which I doubt will happen.
8. Increase Quality/Quantity of Blogging
STATUS: FAILURE
I’ll go ahead and “sigh” at the beginning on this one. I’ve actually done severely worse this year than previously. Let’s look at some numbers on just the main two of my blogs (Technology Site and Family Site (this one)).
franzone.com
Total posts in 2007 = 285
Total posts in 2008 = 182
Total posts in 2009 (to date) = 37
family.franzone.com
Total posts in 2007 = 43
Total posts in 2008 = 37
Total posts in 2009 (to date) = 12
Wow… not only fail, but epic fail! There’s no way I could catch up on this one, but I can at least try to start making regular posts. Why? Hmmm… I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
9. Journal
STATUS: FAILURE
LOL – I probably made one or two journal entries. Oh well, I just don’t think I’m the journaling type.
10. Build Something!
STATUS: FAILURE
Yeah, I’ve still got a huge list of TO-DO items that have had no love. Maybe next year.
11. Resolutions/Goal Tracking
STATUS: FAILURE
This one kind of goes hand in hand with #8 above, so it is an obvious fail.
So What Now?
Well, holiday season is about to be in full swing so I don’t think any of these will get much love except for my running which I’m pretty adamant about. I may make a few feeble attempts to take some steps on a couple of them before the end of year, but that’s about it. Will I set more resolutions for next year? I’ll have to get back to you on that one too. I know I’ll at least keep #1!