Resolutions for 2008

There's something artificial about time, or rather how we keep track of it. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years--they're all human constructs after all yet I think people would go insane without keeping track of it all. So here I am, less than 48 hours away from 2008, an arbitrary time span yet one I accept for it's as good as any. All stories have a beginning and an end and while real life isn't as definite as that, we nonetheless try to make sense of the world and assign beginnings and endings to our own stories.

I was looking back at my entries from last year and I don't think I really publicized my resolutions for 2007. I faintly remember promising myself to read 60 books this year, a task I failed, unless I can read nine books in 24 hours. But I don't mind. 50+ books is a nice number I can be content with. Another resolution I managed to dig from my archives was promising to write 1,000 words a day. I don't think I was able to live up to that resolution, at least during the early months of the year. A lot has changed in the second half of the year however and as I started keeping a regular blogging schedule, well, 1,000 words doesn't seem all that hard.

Resolutions for me are important because it's one way to maintain growth. The worse thing that can happen I think is to remain the same, to stagnate, to cease changing. That's simply death. Another important aspect about resolutions is that it's a goal and one of the reasons I'm publicizing my goals right now is so that I don't forget and by next year, I can keep track whether I succeeded in them or not. Another value about resolutions is that in pondering what my resolutions are, I learn more about myself. I begin to realize what my new priorities in life are and how they affect me. For example, two years ago, I remember one of my resolutions was to stay fit and healthy by exercising regularly. This year, while I want to stay fit and healthy, that goal isn't as important, or at least it's not on my priority list (and never mind the 30-minute I take going to the office). Tell me what your goals in life are and I'll tell you who you are. In my case, here's my resolutions for 2008:

1) Read one book a week. Reading has always been one of my resolutions for the past few years and I don't see a need to change that goal. Last year I aimed for 60 books a year and now I'm cutting it back. 52 books a year isn't so daunting when you break it into one book a week and I think that's enough time to read a book despite all my other, new responsibilities.

2) Blog regularly (Mon - Fri). I actually managed to accomplish this during the latter half of the year. Let's see if I can do it for an entire year. I'm also interested to see the content I'll be developing to keep this quota. So if you've been reading this blog for the past few months, well, as usual, you can expect something to be posted on weekdays, barring some catastrophe.

3) Get three fiction pieces published. This year, I only had two stories published, an improvement over the previous years which numbers zero. And while a couple of my writing is being published elsewhere, it's not my fiction that's being published. Honestly, fiction writing isn't my strongest suit and all the more reason to hone that particular skill.

4) Deposit P50,000 ($1,200) in the bank. That might not seem like a big amount but that's what you get for living in a third world country. Been lax in terms of my savings this year and I'd like to start accumulating money in the bank.