I have a love-hate relationship with new year’s resolutions. I love that, in spirit, they are about setting and keeping goals that bring us closer to who we aspire to be.

I always seem to forget this part… start time: 1:23pm

I hate that I never keep them. I have failed every resolution I have made, often on the very first day. I even failed the resolution to not make resolutions. [insert MHwo post from NY 2010].

Yet I feel compelled make them. Which I love, because it is a manifestation of my drive to improve myself. But which I also hate, because why should I pursue failure so avidly?

I also hate that the new year part of the resolution defines January 1 as the start date. It’s relatively arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. Who is to say January 1 is better than any other day to start a goal? Doing so almost condones the indulgence bad behavior and bad habits up until January 1. Why not April 7 at 3:04pm? Why is that not a good time to start a goal? Or right now?

We’re all works in progress. We all have aspirations for who we want to be and how we want to live. Each day is an opportunity to get a little bit closer to achieving that aspiration. Sure, some things need to be done before others, such as paying off a certain debt before splurging on the next big thing [find a better example].

Or telling a story in a particular order. Like this story, it would be better told in a different order. I think.

My 2011 resolution is to tackle several goals that I have, but to tackle them in bite-size ways that allow me to move toward my aspiration self, without feeling overwhelmed, like there are a million things I want to accomplish and only [insert the number of] minutes in a day. So I’ve decided to tackle 12 30-day goals. This works out to roughly one per month. However, I’m already on January 2nd and failed at the first one I laid out for myself. Good thing a year has 365 days, giving me 5 days to spare. Well, only 4 now as I’ve burned one.

Of course, I could make my first 30-day goal something that takes into account something I accomplished yesterday. That limits my options to goals that involve Twitter, Facebook, taking naps, watching movies, eating unhealthy food and spending time with a particular boy. While all sound more fun, none of them make for good daily goals. Except maybe for the boy…

So I’m back to burning a day. And figuring out what first 30-day goal is going to be.

Some possibilities, in no particular order, include:

1. Cleaning for 30 minutes a day every day for 30 days. I’ve tried this one before [insert links to 43 Things, Zeelog or other places I’ve referred to this goal], and have failed. But I’m not very domestic, which is to say I’m excel at being messy. I’d much rather excel at having a presentable house. I say presentable, because clean might be too much of a stretch at this point in my life.
2. Writing for 30 minutes a day every day for 30 days. Remember it was the goal I outlined in my first post, also my most recent post, here.
3. Contributing content to a daily challenge site. Two I’m already part of are 365project and Tweak Today.
4. Running.

It’s likely that I’ll start with the writing one. This piece would make day 1 accomplished.

I’ve referenced 30-day goals twice here now, and haven’t even explained what it is and how it came about. Perhaps that’s a good skratchpad post for tomorrow…

end time: 1:48pm commence editing for remaining 5 10 minutes…