New Year's Resolutions

It’s kind of “the thing” to do around New Year’s to write a list of resolutions or goals for the upcoming year.  While I’m not against that, life likes to get in the way of a lot, even your most well thought out plans, so I’ve always been hesitant to making lists like this.  It’s kind of like setting yourself up for failure.  That noted, I thought I’d give it a shot this year.  I’ll try to keep them brief, and if you only read one paragraph, I’m hoping it will be the last one.

Screw you Hobbes.

#1.  Fish New (or Different) Water
As you might have noticed from my fishing reports, most of the fishing I do is no more than a half hour drive from my front door.  While this is convenient, it’s also limiting.  I’ll also be honest, having a young daughter and a wife that gets “burned out” from taking care of her all week kind of makes me want to stay close to home on the weekends and do my share.   I’m not saying I have to do a “trout-bum” cross country fishing tour, but getting out of Montgomery & Delaware counties might be nice for a change.

#2.  Lose a Few More Pounds
I actually already started this goal, and it’s not an uncommon one for New Year’s resolutions.  I wrote a post about starting this process this past Summer, and since then I’ve lost (and for the most part kept off) 15 pounds (the holiday season was tough).  My clothes fit better, I generally have more energy, and I’ve probably got about 15 more to go.  Like my fishing, I don’t like to put numbers on things, so that’s why my resolution says “a few more pounds.”  5 or 10 will be a victory, as long as I’m going in the right direction.

#3.  Stop & Smell the Flowers
2010 zoomed by at the speed of light.  Juggling a job, a family, household chores, trying to sneak out to go fishing, and of course writing this crappy blog took a lot of time.  Seems last January was just last week rather than 12 months ago.  A lot of these things that seemingly accelerate time are out of my direct control, it’s life, but at minimum I’m going to make a point to put my workaholic tendencies to the side and use ALL of my vacation days at work this year.  Use ’em or lose ’em, you know?  My family (& I) deserve it.

#4.  Meet Some of You Folks Face-To Face
There’s a group of you out there that are always there.  I don’t have to name names, you know who you are.  Anytime I write a post (or at least every other time I write one), the usual suspects drop by and write a compliment, joke, or even a follow-up question in the comments.  Conversely, I read (and live vicariously through) a lot of your blogs – I mean, damn, look how long my blogroll is these days…and yes, I do my best to read each and every one.

I was fortunate enough to meet Joe aka Wolfy from Flowing Waters (& the OBN) this past year, and I’d like to meet a few more of you in 2011.  I mean who wouldn’t want to wet some Powerbait & Kastmasters with Shoreman or find out why fish H8 Raz?  Sure, there’s some geographical challenges, but you never know where life will take you.  I don’t even care if we don’t go fishing.  Sharing a beer and some good stories works for me too.  There’s more to life than fishing.

#5.  Give Back
I’m pretty fortunate.  I know a lot of people have it a lot worse off than my family & I do, especially in these rough economic times.  While we’re philanthropic in our own little ways, most of our donations to the places we support (Disabled American Veterans, American Diabetes Association, LIVESTRONG, Elmwood Park Zoo, ACPPA, & Trout Unlimited to name a few) are in the monetary form.  What I’d like to do is get involved.  I don’t know exactly what that will be right now, but I have a few ideas.

On this last note, I encourage you to visit a website that one of my childhood friends has come up with with a few of his friends.  It’s called Resolution 11.  The idea around the site is rather than making a New Year’s resolution regarding self-improvment, to focus that energy on making a resolution that benefits others.  Sounds good to me, hope it does to you as well.  Visit Resolution11.org  for more information.

Here’s to a kick ass 2011!