January is no time to make resolutions. Yes, there’s the promise of a new year (unless you’re on the Chinese calendar. Or Hindu calendar. Or Jewish calendar. Or etc.), and you’re likely to be filled with optimism and ready to commit. But it’s an awfully distracting time of year too, and that optimism may lead to over-commitment. So 1/1 is a good time to recover from your Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and/or other solstice-time festivities, and 2/2 is a good time for a more sober assessment of the impact you’d like to make this year.

The idea is not mine. David Seah inspired it with his 2007 blog post, and I’ve intended to do so for several years now, but the good intentions got me nowhere until now.

1. Really the first resolution is to launch jhunterj.com for my blog. That’s been done, but this year I need to get it monetized somehow. I have gotten no traction with Google and fixing my lockout of my “real” account for AdSense, so I either need to set up a different Google account or go with an AdSense competitor. Neither option is particularly appealing, but either would be better than no monetization. “Perfect is the enemy of good.”
2. I was running regularly last summer until I tore a tendon in my foot, and have done precious little exercise since. So: I resolve to get a bicycle this year and, until then, do push-ups, crunches, and dumbbell curls at least four days each week.
3. I will join at least one GenDayton committee this year. Community Service or Marketing seem likeliest.
4. Add another resolution on 3/3, when I come back and revisit these.

Do you keep your resolutions from January 1st? Do you want to join me in a Seah-esque trip through checkpoints this year?

—jhunterj