New Year's Resolutions - Better Late Than Never

I haven't set any New Year's Resolutions. I have a goal that I've been working on for years, but beside that, there's nothing specific that I'd like to accomplish this year. I have no major plans, no real goals. I'm lined up for this semester's classes, and I'll be taking classes in future semesters, too. Of course, I want to learn new things, develop new skills and hone existing ones, and I naturally want to get good grades, but I haven't set that as a goal or resolution. I don't want to say "this year, I want to get straight A's," even though I do want to get straight A's and I'm sure going to try, even if it isn't a New Year's resolution of mine. As I see it, goals need to be special, something above and beyond what you normally attempt to do. Something realistic, but something that'll make you stretch. Something that will make you behave differently than you normally do.

I don't have many goals like that, and actually, I think that's a good thing. I'm already very much like the way I'd like to be (with one or two notable exceptions). I'm already fairly intelligent, reasonably athletic, and somewhat talented. What more could I want from myself? I could always ask for more righteousness, but I already do. Can I make a New Year's Resolution to "keep up the good work"? No. Even if it was practical to set a special goal to maintain the status quo, it would be highly presumptuous. There are another few areas in which I could stand to improve, beyond that which I'm already trying to improve. To be specific, I'm too lazy.

(I just realized - with the Z and Y in the word I used just now, and with the Q and the X's I used earlier, I've used every letter in the English alphabet in this blog post. I wasn't even going for that.)

Right now it's 10:15 am. I've been blogging for at least 15 minutes - let's say I started at 10. I got up at about 6. It took me about an hour to roll out of bed, have family prayer and breakfast, to feed the bird, boot up the computer, and have a conversation with Mom, taking me to 7 am. What happened to the time between 7 and 10, three whole hours? Well, I read and answered a few emails, and got caught up on my Facebook notifications, but mostly, I just watched Youtube videos by myself and with my brother. For three hours. Three hours is a lot of time. I could have watched a movie and a half, maybe two movies, in that amount of time, and I just wasted it. The worst part is that that kind of waste is fairly normal for me. I get caught up in something on the internet, and the next thing I know, the day is half-over. I have things to do today, too. I was hoping to get my blogging done quickly (by 8 or so) so I could get an "early" start. So much for that!

But this leads me perfectly into the quote from Elder Cook's talk, Choose Wisely, that got me started on this topic.

I encourage everyone, young and old, to review goals and objectives and strive to exercise greater discipline. Our daily conduct and choices should be consistent with our goals. We need to rise above rationalizations and distractions. It is especially important to make choices consistent with our covenants to serve Jesus Christ in righteousness. We must not take our eyes off or drop that ball for any reason.

Discipline, daily conduct, distractions. I've never met Elder Cook, but he seems to know me pretty well. I'm not good at discipline, which is why I wouldn't last long at actually trying to be a paladin. My daily conduct depends on the day, and is usually rife with distractions. Sometimes, I have a hard time focussing on what I need to do (unless there's an approaching deadline) because it would be so easy to do something else instead.

So, there's a nice little character flaw I could improve on. How can I turn it into a specific goal, and more importantly, how can I motivate myself to make progress toward that goal? I could start keeping track of how I spend my time. I was once encouraged to write down how I spent all my time for a few days, down to the half-hour. Maybe I should get myself a little notebook and start keeping track again. Just seeing how much time I waste might encourage me to start wasting less time. That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to Office Depot today anyway. I can pick up some notebooks while I'm there. I'll also need to find a small writing implement, or make some kind of pencil cap, so I can carry something I can write with without it marking up the insides of my pockets. I'll see what I can find.

There's another New Year's Resolution I'm setting for myself, but I won't give any details about it lest I embarrass myself and disappoint a certain family member who's closely related to someone who reads this blog. And there's another little thing I'm working on, but it's supposed to be a surprise.

So, now that I have a few New Year's Resolutions, I don't feel bad encouraging you to think up one or two as well. It's not too late. Self-improvement is a quest of a lifetime. It's a large part of the reason we're here. Find up some way you could be better, and set a small goal for how you could improve in that area. Our resolutions don't have to be monumental - they just have to help us grow. I hope to grow a little bit better this year than I was last year, and if a 50 cent notebook can help me do that, terrific.