Happy New Year

As I write this it's just a few hours into 2009. I could be all nostalgic about what a great year 2008 was, or I could be all optimistic about what I'm going to do in 2009, but I'm not feeling terribly inclined to do either.

It's fun to celebrate the New Year, and growing up it was always such an exciting night, but the older I get the more I tend to wonder what we're really celebrating. Has it really been such a great year that we should celebrate? Have we really accomplished as much as we could in the year? Done as much as we should have? Lived life to the fullest, and changed the world around us? And if we're celebrating the coming year do we really think we'll accomplish everything we say we'll do?

When I was a kid my family always went to the same family's house for New Years Eve. We'd spend the evening eating shrimp and lots of munchies. The men and the kids would play with electric trains, legos, or whatever cool toys we'd get out. The women always fussed at the men to aim away from the picture windows when it came time to pop the cork on the champagne bottle.

As midnight neared we'd gather around to read last years resolutions, and write resolutions for the coming year. It was always fun to look back at what we said we'd do a year ago, but I don't think we ever accomplished most of the thing we said we'd do. We don't get to spend New Year's with the same family any more, and with that change we've fallen out of the habit of formally writing resolutions.

As I look back on 2008 I'm finding myself wondering if there are things I should have accomplished and just didn't bother to? Are there goals I could have met but didn't in the past year? It seems like the year has gone by so fast, and I don't really have much to show for it, but maybe I just expect too much of myself.... Maybe I should stop worrying about what I haven't done and be proud of what I have accomplished.

As I look ahead to the New Year part of me wants to declare out loud my goals for the year, but why bother? I know that no matter how ambitious I am about sharing goals for the year, I'm not likely to stick with or accomplish anything that I wouldn't do any way. Saying something is a New Years resolution doesn't make it any more or less realistic a goal than any other goal.

Maybe the thing I really don't like about New Years resolutions is it gives people a reason to put off working toward their goals until the New Year. When I get something in my head I want to accomplish, I tend to need to start working towards that goal in a few days, or I end up losing interest or just putting it off indefinitely. Waiting until the New Year or some other "start date" to start trying to reach a goal just doesn't work well for me. I have to accomplish as much as I can while the idea is fresh, or I get too distracted from it.

I'm sure this is rather incoherent and scatterbrained since I'm up too late to write intelligently, but I want to post it before bed anyway.... Because if I don't do it now I'm likely to get too distracted to come back to it.