New Year Resolutions

Do you believe in New Year resolutions? I do. I don't necessarily believe in swearing an oath to "fulfill them...or else", however, it is my firm conviction that at least "setting" goals is vital to my success in the coming year. If you don't know where you want to be at the end of the year, how will you know whether or not you've gotten there? Goals are very important. Proverbs says that a Wise Man looketh well to the ways of his going and that the Prudent forseeth evil and hide themself!


My New Year resolutions...no I will rephrase that. Many of my New Year Goals for 2007 have to do with self government. Checking my spiritual imput/output. Health habits. This is the first year I have ever had to make a real resolution concerning my weight. Ah! It must be my age and metabolism catching up on me. Gone are the carefree days of unmonitered eating! :) From now on I suppose I will have to weigh in the balance (no pun intended) the benefit of consuming "this" or "that!"


I have a funny approach to New Year resolutions. I make them at the begining of the year and then glance at them about once every couple months, modifying them and just keeping the idea of them in the back of my mind. Otherwise, I completely forget about them in the BIG sense. I find if I make a HUGE resolution and try to live it out all at once, I only get discouraged by my lack of progress. Pretty soon I fizzle out and give it up altogether. So, I came up with a way to overcome my timid, untenacious, tendancies.


We've all heard of the revelutionary principle "Divide and Conquere". It works in war and it works in life. So, I make two resolution lists instead of one.
The first is just the regular list of what I want to change about character, spiritual life, habits; or things I want to learn, such as a new skill or refinement.
The second list is a twelve month breakdown of each specific goal.


Then I simply focus on small goals for that month and forget about all the others.
For instance, one of my desires has always been to learn French. That is not one of my resolutions this year, however if it was this is how I would go about it.
List 1:
Learn French

List 2:
January:

Check out french related "general interst" books from the library (such as titles as "Parisian Gourmet", "Country French Decor'", Provincial Gardens", "Marsaille Archetechture" and "Travelling through Metz.") I wouldn't really read them, just glance through them and read small sections that I find intriguing.

I might also check out a subtitled French movie such as "My Mother's Castle" or read "The Conquests of Napolean", "The Refugee's", or "A Tale of Two Cities". (BTW you do have to be careful with french movies...I'm not in any way recommending them. I've had a few that once they've gotten home, had to go straight back to the library!)

All of the above serves to arouse my interest and give me a reason to learn French. At this point, I now know more about French humanity and culture. None of the above takes very much time out of my day-to-day life during the month. Perhaps an hour or two one day to scope out some books at the library. A few hours during the next couple of weeks to glance through and read the intersting parts. Two hours to watch a movie some Friday. Maybe a week of reading at night for a book? Not much time really in the large view of things, and when I'm finished, I'll be more motivated to stick to learning a language about people that I am slightly more aquainted with.

February:
Search for good curriculem. Learn the alphabet and pronunciation.

March:
Learn the 100 most commenly used verbs. (3 words a day for instance)

April:
Learn sentance structure and the most commonly used connecting words such as the, in, but, and, is etc...

May:
40 most commonly used phrases. (A phrase a day)

June:
Learn the most commonly used nouns.

July:
Begin building your own sentances using a dictionary to suppliment.
By now your already speaking basic French and you haven't taken too much time out of your life to do it. If you wanted to take two months on each of the above activities, it would take even less time and there you would have your entire year planned out. Hooray!

Looking back on last years 2006 resolutions, I find that I did accomplish, at least, all of the most important goals I made using this "divide and conquere" method.
Remember, no one was ever unsuccessful because they spent time planning ahead!