New Year's Resolutions

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." ~ Benjamin Franklin

I've always felt funny about making New Year's resolutions.  It seems odd to me to pick a particular day of the year for deciding to improve ourselves.  After all, shouldn't we resolve to be better every day, not just at the beginning of the year?  But I usually made resolutions anyway...over-ambitious ones that I didn't end up following for more than a week.  

Then I read somewhere that a good resolution has five attributes (they spell the word SMART): specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  Those attributes make sense to me; if you have a vague, unreachable, or badly-timed resolution, you're probably not going to end up following it.  So, with the five attributes in mind, I formed the following resolutions for 2018:

1) I will read 100 books during the year.  This includes re-reading things I've already read.  To keep track of my progress, I'm adding the books to Goodreads as I finish them, and I've also made a Pinterest board for pictures of the books (yes, I'm hopelessly addicted to Pinterest).  So far I've re-read Emma by Jane Austen and am in the middle of re-reading Persuasion.  Goodreads says I'm one book behind on my goal already, but I'm hoping that when I finish Persuasion I'll be back on track.  I'm planning on coming up with a book list soon too, but I haven't started making it yet.

The reason for this resolution is that, although I love reading, I lost a lot of my momentum during college when I had so many things to read for school.  After college, I never got back into the swing of regular reading.  I'm hoping this resolution will help with that!

2) I will post something on this blog at least once a week, barring family emergencies or vacations.  I'm not sure what I'll post yet, but I am going to post something.

The reason for this resolution is that I tried to blog before and failed miserably because I never posted anything.  This time I'm determined to post regularly!

 

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?  And do you agree with the SMART theory about resolutions?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!