A new year, a new intention
The start of a calendar year brings out the intention in many of us to start anew, to somehow divest ourselves of what was not acceptable in the previous year and to try something new. Many times, though, our goals exceed our levels of control and influence and we end up angry at ourselves for overreaching when, darn it, we should have known better.
The temptation is certainly there for me for grandiose goals. I'm trying something different this year. On the one hand, I'm going to make up my list of 100 tasks in 1000 days as mentioned by Lee a while back for long-term goals. Short-term items are going to be addressing what I can when it arises rather than letting things accumulate and then getting depressed because there just so much goddamn stuff.
Along with that is a slow, steady removal of materials I've collected over the years because I just might need that particular article or item - although I haven't even seen it in years. Not hoarding per se (I hope) but rather a general gathering of inertia since it's easier to store it than to actually take it in for recycling. I think part of it is a desire to be a little more flexible in planning and resources by getting rid of the deadfall and working on the active materials.
We'll see. In the meantime, one of my tasks is going to be catching up on correspondence with family, friends, acquaintances and others from my various communities as well as keeping regular contact. Yes, this is an ongoing task rather than the usual "finish and done with" tasks associated with a list but it's becoming more important to me lately as I've had a tendency to lose track of people if I'm not in contact with them regularly. I couldn't even tell you everyone who was in my fraternity chapter when I graduated for example.
Another task is something along the line of home/house repair as I've let it go for some time. One point has been the replacement of our heating system which lasted 20 years but has started to give up the ghost. Next will probably be gutters and roof as they need some attention. After that, ah, the glories of being a homeowner.
The temptation is certainly there for me for grandiose goals. I'm trying something different this year. On the one hand, I'm going to make up my list of 100 tasks in 1000 days as mentioned by Lee a while back for long-term goals. Short-term items are going to be addressing what I can when it arises rather than letting things accumulate and then getting depressed because there just so much goddamn stuff.
Along with that is a slow, steady removal of materials I've collected over the years because I just might need that particular article or item - although I haven't even seen it in years. Not hoarding per se (I hope) but rather a general gathering of inertia since it's easier to store it than to actually take it in for recycling. I think part of it is a desire to be a little more flexible in planning and resources by getting rid of the deadfall and working on the active materials.
We'll see. In the meantime, one of my tasks is going to be catching up on correspondence with family, friends, acquaintances and others from my various communities as well as keeping regular contact. Yes, this is an ongoing task rather than the usual "finish and done with" tasks associated with a list but it's becoming more important to me lately as I've had a tendency to lose track of people if I'm not in contact with them regularly. I couldn't even tell you everyone who was in my fraternity chapter when I graduated for example.
Another task is something along the line of home/house repair as I've let it go for some time. One point has been the replacement of our heating system which lasted 20 years but has started to give up the ghost. Next will probably be gutters and roof as they need some attention. After that, ah, the glories of being a homeowner.