new year's resolutions
January 01, 2005
happy new year!
new years resolutions for 2005 are as follows:
1. complete my ou course. no matter what sacrifices have to be made, this is a one-shot. i can't afford to take another course like this one (the usual fee is £475, which was waived as i was staff at the time i signed up). it is also a huge chance to prove to myself that i can actually do it. i don't actually care about my final grade - all i want to do is follow it through to the bitter end.
2. make more of an effort to stay in touch with friends. now that i'm living in stourbridge full time it's going to be a lot harder to see my milton keynes friends. combined with the fact that i have to study at weekends, it's going to be tough to stay in touch. there's a lot of people i don't see as often as i'd like to already, and i'm just going to have to make more effort with phone calls and emails.
3. stop blaming things on other people. possibly my worst character flaw, i am forever finding reasons why things aren't my fault. if i'm late, if i've forgotten something, if the computer has crashed ... there's always someone or something else to blame for it. it's got so ridiculous that i even annoy myself now. this year i'm going to stop doing it. it's not even about taking responsibility for my actions (because sometimes it's genuinely NOT my fault!) but more about letting things slide and not having to find a scapegoat all the time.
4. stop smoking. this has been a long and stressful year for me and lately i've been creeping back towards smoking again. i don't consider myself a smoker (yet) but if i don't nip it in the bud, i could end up being one. i gave up four years ago in march and it would be so utterly stupid to start again now that i have really got to do something about it.
5. start running again. earlier this year i decided that in 2005 i was going to do an ou course or run a marathon. i decided on the course (see 1) and am now hoping to do the marathon in 2006. in order to run the london marathon, which is in april, i have to start training before the end of this year. at the moment i don't think i could even haul myself round a 5k! the local running club meets on monday nights, which used to be the night i was away, so i've never been able to join. this year i'm going to try and get my running to a standard where i feel i can join the club (essentially being able to run for 45 minutes at a steady pace) and start my marathon training around november.
new years resolutions for 2005 are as follows:
1. complete my ou course. no matter what sacrifices have to be made, this is a one-shot. i can't afford to take another course like this one (the usual fee is £475, which was waived as i was staff at the time i signed up). it is also a huge chance to prove to myself that i can actually do it. i don't actually care about my final grade - all i want to do is follow it through to the bitter end.
2. make more of an effort to stay in touch with friends. now that i'm living in stourbridge full time it's going to be a lot harder to see my milton keynes friends. combined with the fact that i have to study at weekends, it's going to be tough to stay in touch. there's a lot of people i don't see as often as i'd like to already, and i'm just going to have to make more effort with phone calls and emails.
3. stop blaming things on other people. possibly my worst character flaw, i am forever finding reasons why things aren't my fault. if i'm late, if i've forgotten something, if the computer has crashed ... there's always someone or something else to blame for it. it's got so ridiculous that i even annoy myself now. this year i'm going to stop doing it. it's not even about taking responsibility for my actions (because sometimes it's genuinely NOT my fault!) but more about letting things slide and not having to find a scapegoat all the time.
4. stop smoking. this has been a long and stressful year for me and lately i've been creeping back towards smoking again. i don't consider myself a smoker (yet) but if i don't nip it in the bud, i could end up being one. i gave up four years ago in march and it would be so utterly stupid to start again now that i have really got to do something about it.
5. start running again. earlier this year i decided that in 2005 i was going to do an ou course or run a marathon. i decided on the course (see 1) and am now hoping to do the marathon in 2006. in order to run the london marathon, which is in april, i have to start training before the end of this year. at the moment i don't think i could even haul myself round a 5k! the local running club meets on monday nights, which used to be the night i was away, so i've never been able to join. this year i'm going to try and get my running to a standard where i feel i can join the club (essentially being able to run for 45 minutes at a steady pace) and start my marathon training around november.
