“Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

~ Oscar Wilde

I understand the flawed logic of New Year’s resolutions.  If an intention is worth commitment, why should it require a special spot on the calendar?  A valid question, sure.

It doesn’t, but we as humans are always in search of beginnings; few dawns are as clear as that one that doctors our final digit.

The problem with New Year’s resolutions isn’t that they’re made. It’s that they are rarely ever kept. I myself love my resolutions. I make them each year and do my best to keep them. I write them down, commit them to memory, and make them a part of my everyday thought.

No one gets anywhere by saying they want to do something. They arrive only after a series of steps, each moving them closer toward their goal.

I won’t bore you with the minutia of my method, nor will I write the entire rundown of all I’ll endeavor to do this year, but I do adore the public accountability of my internet living room. So here, in no particular order, are seven things I will do by the final seconds of this new year.

1)  I will write a song.  I use to love writing songs in my late teens (basic chord progressions + awkward lyrics = post adolescent awesome). I’ve never actually written a good one, and I’m not saying I’ll write a good one now, but I will write one to completion and share it with you here (yes, terrible singing voice and all).

2)  I will be bilingual. This was on my list last year and I hate to admit I didn’t make it. I don’t expect to deliver any monologues en español, but I should be able to hold my own with an average third grader. I owe it to my children as well as myself.

3) I will make my living online. Yep.

4)  I will see a small fraction of my words in print. Last year’s list said, “I will get published.” I do that M-F now, thanks to WordPress. This year, I’d like someone else to bless my verbiage.

5)  I will organize my digital life. Oh, I love dealing in all the digitalia, but I let it dangle way too much. I have heaps of unorganized photos and files, the pile getting harder to sift.

6) I will read old fashioned books like I have for twenty-nine of the last thirty years. I hardly feel like a need to apologize to the written word; I’ve never loved it more. However, I have traded turning pages for browsers. I will never be half the writer I wish to be until I return to the reader I once was.

7)  I will listen to more music. Music has gone from a large part of my life to a part of my life that is largely gone. No more. I will clear time for the occasional new artist as well as old favorites.

Of course I have additional private resolutions.  These are public, making them so was the first step to making them happen.

Writer Dad

Sean Platt is a ghostwriter for hire, specializing in custom blog posts.