An Erstwhile New Year: Resolutions vs Goals for 2015

I've made the decision not to make resolutions for 2015. In my head, resolutions are an agreement to change one's behavior in ways that improve your standard of living. This is admirable, and I've certainly "made" some of those. (Namely, spend less money and eat at home more. Working pretty well so far, as long as I don't walk by a Chipotle.) However, I've found over time that I tend to stick to these about as well as ice sticks to sand in the desert - not at all. If anything, they fall apart about as quickly as ice on sand.

 Because 2014 was a pretty damn good year for me, I'm looking for was to keep any and all positive momentum moving forward in my life. When I boil it down, I find that I'm happiest when I'm constantly working on projects that have a clear end-goal in sight. This could be auditioning for specific plays instead of everything under the sun, or writing a story with an eye towards getting it produced by people I know here in Chicago. Goals make things work for me, and the lack of a goal-structured life is one part of what threw me for a loop for about three years between graduating college and coming back to Chicago in 2013.

Goals help me accomplish things better, which then lead to me pushing myself to change as necessary to achieve those goals as well as pursue more ambitious goals. (Sidenote - expect to see the word goals a lot more in months to come.) What follows is a list of things I've set out to accomplish in the coming months, a list I will revisit a few times a year to see how I'm doing.

THINGS I'M GOING TO DO IN 2015:

1.  Not smoke -  it's a resolution to quit smoking, but my goal is to go 365 days without having bought cigarettes and/or smoking any cigarettes at all. Good news - I'm already five days in!
2. Get a play performed/read somewhere - Currently, my latest play is out with readers, who are slowly trickling in with advice/comments/feedback. After a draft or two, I hope to get a staged reading done here in Chicago (and possibly elsewhere). After that, I'd love to see what happens.
3. Write Two to Three New Full Length Plays - I've already got ideas for two of them. It's just a matter of sitting down and grinding them out. But first...
4. Write a Novel - I'm starting it tonight. Chapter One - The First. That whole thing. Yay for the next month and a half!
5. Write Five Short Plays/Movies/Sketches - This is harder. Writing a short story that is a complete thing is really difficult. Having said that, I've already got the ideas for two, so that leaves 360 days to come up with three more ideas.
6. Travel to Two Places I've Never Been Before - Cities, states, countries, you name it. I'm starting small because I'm underemployed at the moment, but on this potential travel list is Seattle, L.A., Graceland, large tracts of northern Wisconsin/Michigan, and/or New England. We'll see what happens and where the road takes me.
7. Audition for Ten New Plays - The older I get, the more I hate auditioning. But I still love acting, and want to keep pursuing it. I figure I'll just be more conservative - I've started embracing my role as a writer more and more.
8. Expand the Recorder - I've got ideas in play, and will be pursuing them as well as I can. That's a story for another blog.
9. Never Go Back to the Restaurant (for work) - I think that speaks pretty clearly for itself.
10. Run Two to Three 5K Races - this ties along with the goal of 'Stay in Shape', but if I'm in shape, running three races shouldn't be a problem.
11. Get New Headshots - I've put this off for over a year, now. Time to get back to work.
12. Keep Up the Good Work - I really like my job. I like the people I work with. Putting down my personal goals for my work won't make much sense here, but I will say that I've got daily goals in mind for myself as soon as I walk through the door, and it's hard to get me to leave until I've met those goals. I hate leaving things unfinished (hence, the existence of this list)
13. Get Paid for Writing - Not sure how. But I'll figure something out. (Small voice: It can be done!)
14. Keep Extraneous Spending Low - Even if I weren't underemployed, I would want to try this. Not eating out and not splurging on obscenely expensive items is already making a bit of a difference. I'm also looking into the value of biking to work, which would complete another part of my transformation from a slack-jawed yokel into a city-smart hipster. Such is life.
15. Find Someone to Volunteer For - While I love all the free time to get writing done, I'd like to put some of that to good use. I know that I've always felt a strong connection to nature, and so doing anything to help the environment would mean a lot to me personally, while being a great use of my time. I know I'm in the middle of Chicago, but I figure there's something I can do to help...somehow...

So, there it is. My list of goals, recorded for posterity, and to hold myself accountable later. I'll check back on this around late April - I've set an alarm and everything! Until then, time to push forward. Happy New Year, everyone!