New Years Resolutions

Well its been a few months and Mine Shaft Gap - the blog - was in serious danger of dying through a lack of interest. The reality is that the second half of 2009 was a bit of a disaster at home. A death in the family, work got amazingly busy and general life pressures all piled up to make me miss doing something I was really, really enjoying.

So anyway, I'm back, its the new year and now seems like as good a time as any to get back into "it". And what better way to start than with some new years resolutions?

Ok, we've all tried these and virtually none of us ever keep them. Still I persist in hoping that this year will be the year I stick at it.

To increase the odds of me succeeding, and to give me a way of charting my success, I've made 10 resolutions. Also, none (or almost none) of the resolutions are 'binary' that is there's nothing like "quit smoking" that's a single pass/fail. Each of my resolutions offers me the chance to get a partial pass.

Ok, enough gas bagging what are my resolutions?

1. Lose weight. I currently weight 126.5 KG. I aim to be 95 kg by 1 Jan 2011.
2. Get finances in order. I wont go into details but the reality is I've not paid the mucky muck of financial planning enough of a priority. I have more detailed goals but there are limits to what I'll put on the net.
3. Read 52 books, ie one a week. These have to be 'real' books (with words) and technical/how to books dont count.
4. Compete in a formal triathalon. This was a goal for 2009 and I failed. But failing once doesnt mean I cant aim to succeed this time around.
5. Learn French. Ok I'm only 43 but the realities of aging are beginning to turn up and I'm determined to beat them. Just as the triathalon is a 'marker' that my diet and exercise is working I'm using learning a new language as a marker that my brain is still functioning.
6. Have 1000 photos for sale via my stock site Alamy. I'm currently at around 350, so I have to get another 650 or around 50 shots a month. Thats a huge ask for me but its a goal.
7. Have 100 t shirt designs for sale at my red bubble site. I have pages and pages of ideas for stuff and as last year got worse and worse the ideas kept coming but the motivation to follow through evaporated. I've got about 25 designs for sale so far so thats really only a new design every 5 days. I should be able to achieve that - shouldn't I?
8. I want to get a blog entry out there - either here or on my pmac imagery blog every second day (as a minimum).
9. Get my Lancia rally car back and running (and perhaps even get an event under my belt)
10. Complete the flickr 365 day challenge. I clearly arent going to be able to start on 1 Jan - which would have been very convienient - so I'll start on Australia day 26 Jan. Why Australia day? Because I can pretty well be certain I'll have my camera handy.

So thats it - ten resolutions for all 365 days of the year. I'll be tracking my progress via the blog so stay tuned and be prepared to cheer me on or crow as I go down in flames yet again.