A New Year - A New Resolution

Every year I make the same resolution, just like most Americans. And like most of us, I always fail to see it through to its completion. My usual resolution is to get published - a simple enough idea, though, as any writer will tell you, a daunting one. However, this failure can be very depressing year after year. So this year, I will do something different.

For starters, I am developing specific steps and deadlines with which to achieve my goals. The only way to actually reach them is to plan and carry out the plan.

Secondly, this year, 2011, is going to be different than any other in my life for a variety of reasons. And it will also be the busiest year of my life, I am sure. In March, I will become a father, and having a newborn is going to take most of my time and attention. Likewise, I have recently been accepted to Clemson University to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering, which will take up even more of my time and attention. If I have any left, it will be absorbed by the part-time job that I must find in order to survive on our meager earnings.

Because of this, I cannot make any grandiose resolution such as "getting published." It is not a feasible or even realistic goal in a year such as this one. Instead, I will make it my goal to write every day, if possible. It may only be five minutes, and it may only be in this very blog, but it must become a daily thing for me. If the Lord allows, I may find an agent this year as well, but I am not holding my breath.

As I started thinking about the new responsibilities that are soon to grace my plate, I began to realize how complex a person I really am. I was once told that a man only has time for one great passion in his life. Only now am I realize that this statement, although depressing, has plenty of truth to it. Along with raising a child, keeping the flame of love alive, chasing a degree, and working to keep bread on the table, I MUST find time for my own passions, or else I fear I may go insane. My greatest passions are writing and playing the guitar. I can do either for endless hours, and I am decent at both (although, after reading The Great Gatsby, I realize that I am excellent at neither). But everything has its parameters, its defining limitations, and time is almost always one of them. This year, if I am to write every day, my guitar may be collecting a fine layer of dust from time to time. But it has become a part of me, and I cannot simply give it up. Time management is going to be a skill that I will have to learn this year, along with self-discipline.