New Year Resolutions

Obviously the year is no longer new, although it is hard to believe it is already February.  I made it through an entire month without doing anything related to my New Year Resolutions.  I'm not necessarily a big resolution maker - mainly because a year is a long time to do anything.  I have a hard time doing certain things for a week, sometimes even a day (depending on what it is), much less a whole year.  Hence my New Week Resolution idea of 2009 (that I'm sure lasted only a couple of weeks and not at all close to an entire year).

Anyway, I did make some resolutions, but I wouldn't really call them resolutions.  The way I see it, they're goals (kind of?), things I've wanted to do for a long time, but was apparently too lazy or preoccupied to put forth the effort. Posted on the wall at Potbelly Sandwich Shop in College Station, TX is the following quote:

"At some point you've got to stop talking about the person you want to become and start becoming that person."

I guess the first(-ish) of the year is the time to do that!  My resolutions are about becoming the kind of person that I want to be.  In a Workplace Health course I took at A&M, our professor told us that writing goals down increases the chance for success in obtaining them.  I have never been able to find the statistic she provided, but a quick search on the internet gave me the following "some studies have shown that people who write down their goals are up to 10 times more likely to reach their goals than those who never wrote their goals down" - although the obscure webpage didn't cite the "studies" they reference, they did end their statement with a big ! so it's got to be true...If nothing else, writing them down and sharing them will help keep me accountable.

Without further ado, here are (some of) my written-down resolutions, in no particular order:

• No texting and driving.  Very bad, yet also very hard to do.  I know there is nothing important enough to endanger myself and others, yet I'm so accustomed to the instantaneous communication that it has proven to be a difficult habit to break. 
• Read.  My goal for the year is a book a week (52 books), which should be manageable considering I have some free time during the day.  I'm already 2 down!  Although that does mean I'm 3 behind.  I'll get there.  I've joined goodreads to track my progress and keep the list of books I've read, currently reading, and want to read, etc.  Great website. 
• Be a gardener.  This will occur under direction of my mother, who has in fact had many successful gardens in the past and knows what the heck she is doing, since I do not.
• Play the piano.  Once upon a time I could play the piano and now I live in a house with a beautiful piano that I paid to have tuned a couple months ago.  Can't let that go to waste. 
• Cook.  I've recently added foodgawker to the FlipBoard on my iPad, which brings recipes from a bunch of different foodie blogs into one simple place for me to see.  I can flip through all the pretty pictures, drool over the food, and star the ones I like.  I've only made one dish (15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta) but it did not disappoint. 

So there they are...we'll see how it goes.  Happy Resolutions!