Friday, January 9, 2009

How to Make and Keep New Year's Resolutions on Your Time, Not New Year's Day

I’ve been hesitant and dragging my feet about writing, a post about my New Year’s Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t make them. I do . I don’t usually make my New Years Resolutions on or around New Years Eve because I end up making and ultimately breaking those hastily made resolutions.


I find that I’m better at keeping my New Years Resolutions if I make them when I need them. Usually several months before or after January first. Sometimes I even make them in the middle of the year. For example, my 2008 New Year’s Resolution was to reduce The Condo’s natural gas and electricity usage by 20% because of a big utility bill that we received in the fall of 2007. Well things really didn’t get rolling with the savings until March of 2008 because I had to examine and change some habits and do some small upgrades to The Condo but for the most part, I ended up meeting my goal and thereby keeping my 2008 New Years Resolution that I made in November of 2007.



For the past few months, I have been mulling over some goals, though. You might want to call them New Year’s Resolutions. Here they are.
  • I want to take Condo Blues to the next level of blogging with a better site design, marketing, and stronger advertising and sponsor participation. In other words, I’d like to stop being the Kathy Griffin of blogging (even though I think she’s fab!) and get off the D List! Making extra money from this little blog venture of mine and adding it to our Household Emergency Fund would be a bonus because Husband’s company is closing his office this year and moving it out of state. Husband will be job hunting at the end of 2009.
  • Do some outside green living consulting work including paid writing or speaking gigs. I’m an excellent public speaker and with my different take on things, I’m sure that I can teach folks that living a more sustainable and environmentally friendly life is not as onerous or expensive as some of the popular media lead us to believe. And I can make it fun - just like Crunchy Chicken, I can also put the “mental” in environmental!
  • I will not try to let Greenzillas make me feel that I am less of an enviro just because I did not do or follow their personal green living practice. What’s green/sustainable/doable for you and yours may not be for me and mine because of regional, cultural, or legal differences. Sadly, I’m noticing that it’s become quite the fashion to publicity flail oneself when someone isn’t in 100% green compliance all day every day.
  • I’m going to continue to focus on creatively reusing the items I have and turning them into the stuff I need or want. I hope that that that will make up for any transgressions that may happen in the above bullet point.
  • I want to attend BlissDom, or BlogHer, or both.
  • I want to be better about reporting my natural gas meter readings on the months that Columbus Gas estimates The Condo’s usage. Because it always bites me in the wallet when I don’t .
Do you make New Year’s Resolutions throughout the year? What are your New Year’s Resolutions for 2009?

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5 comments:

Cathy said...

i tend to make mine on new year's eve, but then don't stick to them. i really want to this year, though. your goals sounds awesome!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some great goals! I don't have so many specific resolutions as just some general directions I'd love things to move this year.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with your list. You are so right about that "Greener than thou" self-righteousness going around these days. I wish we could all just work on bettering ourselves without making it about being better than someone else!

Paul Eilers said...

I agree. When you are good and ready, then start working on your goals.

Otherwise, you put yourself in a hole right off the bat.

Christina said...

I hope you'll be able to make it to Blissdom and BlogHer. I'll be at both, and I always learn a lot and have so much fun at blog conferences.

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