Are We Still Doing Resolutions?

My computer organization is still ongoing (or slow-going, as the case may be (and in fact is)).  One of the files I’ve come across is this rather depressing list.

Things I Want More of in my Life

• Healthy food
• Home-cooked meals
• Work
• Reading
• Exercise
• Regular sleeping hours
• Keeping up with family and friends
• Cleanliness

Why so depressing?  Because I’m pretty sure I wrote this list around Christmastime 2005.  And the things I want more of in my life?  Still these.

I’m not saying no progress has been made.  In fact, I think each area has gotten a little better.  But “a little better” was not, you know, what I was going for.  I was sort of looking to solve things, not just edge them along.  And now that I’ve uncovered this document, I have a horrible vision of myself making such a list at age sixty, only to find out it’s composed of the exact same items.

Maybe this is normal.  Maybe the things you care about become the quests of your life.  On the other hand, maybe more could be done.

So.  What to do, what to do, what to do?  Make resolutions?  I like resolutions.  But resolutions, I feel, are good for tackling one thing, or two things, or at absolute most three things.  Never, no, never, eight things.  The last thing you want to do is start the year hip deep in resolutions.  It is a perfect recipe for failure.

Well, then, how to simplify?  I recently heard of the idea of choosing a word to meditate on for the year, rather than a set of resolutions.  I like this because it’s simple (if, unfortunately, not very concrete).  And so, for 2010 I have chosen the word Responsibility.

It was a near thing between Responsibility and Discipline.  Discipline might better encapsulate The List, but Responsibility seems bigger somehow.  Like Discipline is about doing the things you must, but Responsibility is about doing the things you can.  Or something Spider-Man would say.

Here we are in February, and I’d guess that my RQ (Responsibility Quotient) for the first month of the year is… hmmm… 50%.  (Remember, if you’re not ranking and scoring things, you’re not having fun.)  I’ll see if I can improve that in February.  Does anybody else do this Word-for-the-Year thing?  If so, what’s yours?