Skip the New Years Resolutions.

Have you forgotten your New Years resolution yet? I am happy to boast that I am still on track but smart enough to know that if history is any indication, I will most likely be off track, at best by the third week in January. That thought was discouraging enough that I thought about not making any at all. I like most people make the exact same ones year after year: lose weight, make more money,save more money, blah, blah, blah. I am bored and demoralized just thinking about it. It's like failure de ja vu and who needs that?  Despite my reluctance; my ever quest of self-improvement would not let me completely abandon them which according to today's Red Eye  newspaper something like 54 % of the population is doing this year. Yes more than half of Americans have given up by not even bothering to make them at all.

Here's my new approach. Instead of making new years resolutions I am making 12 lists one for each month of the year. For example each year I resolve to get my taxes finished and mailed off well before the April 15th deadline. Have I ever once accomplished this? You probably know the answer before I even write it. NEVER! Not once has this been  accomplished. So this year my goal for January is to gather all my W-2's, 10-99's, business receipts, etc, next the goal for February is to make an appointment with the tax accountant. And on the top of March's list, if I haven't already filed. The goal is to  FILE! How hard could it be? I would have already gathered all the documents and taken them to the tax accountant. By March all I should have to do is sign my name somewhere. With this new plan in place I am confident that this is the year, that I prevail over my taxes. I plan to apply the same strategy to all my "resolutions". This strategy can be applied to those pesky perennial resolutions like losing weight, e.g., January: join gym. February: recruit exercise buddy. March: replace two lunches a week with miso soup. April: sign up for 5k. You get the idea each month is a chance to revisit your initial resolution in an predetermined way.  I firmly believe this will make it much more likely that you and I will at least accomplish some of them and at the very least beat last years track record. Last year I accomplished a grand total of 6 resolutions out of twenty. Which actually is better than most years. Still it was a pitiful showing. One of my resolutions was to buy a Geranium. How easy is that? All I had to do is go to a garden center and buy a geranium, and yet I failed in this ridiculously easy resolution. This year I predict success because it will be at the top of April's and May's List.

So there you have it. My 2011 recommendation is to make 12 monthly to do lists that support your New Years Resolutions. Let me know if you think this is the dumbest thing you ever read or the most brilliant idea ever. My bet: something in between.