It’s a new year! By the grace of God, Planet Earth and its population of grouchy humans staggered through 2015. The year 2016 has begun, promising new adventures and opportunities, and also a new Legend of Zelda game.
This is going to be a good year. At any rate, that’s what I keep telling myself.
Nothing brightens up a new year like the promise of a new Legend of Zelda title!
For me, 2015 was a year of change. I quit a lousy job, found a better one, changed job positions, lost a dear friend, grew a beard, and acquired a cat. What lies ahead this year? God only knows. I begin 2016 hopeful, highly caffeinated, and armed with several New Year’s resolutions.
In my last post, I reviewed my old resolutions for 2015. What are my resolutions for the new year? Well, I’m glad I asked. Here they are!
I will be more purposeful.
I’m easily distracted, and my life is full of distractions. Consider my cat, Pearl, who jumped onto my lap while I was trying to write this blog post and began licking my arm. I’m not sure whether to be flattered or concerned. Is the licking a gesture of affection, or is she making up her mind whether to eat me?
Do you see what I mean? I try to make a point about distractions, only to end up worrying about my cat. In my day-to-day life, I often drift from meaningful activities to worthless ones. I spend too much time reading random articles on Wikipedia and brooding over frivolities, and too little time reading books and writing stuff that matters to me.
I work in a nursing home. Surrounded by old people, I realize that I too shall be old someday (assuming my cat doesn’t eat me first). At that time, I don’t want to look back with anguish, regret, and gnashing of teeth. (Heck, I may not have any teeth left to gnash.) When I’m old, I want to look back on a life well spent.
That must begin now, here, today, this year, with purposeful living. It begins with little day-to-day decisions. I have to start somewhere, right?
I will value prayer more.
As an orthodox Christian, I believe prayer is the most important, powerful, significant thing I can do, yet I don’t spend as much time in prayer as in years past. Why is this? There are a number of reasons, but I won’t discuss them today. What I will say is this: I need to value prayer, and to pray faithfully.
It’s a secret to everybody.
My final resolution is a well-kept secret, locked carefully in a well-kept chest in the tidy depths of a well-kept dungeon. (I like to keep things neat.)
Today is a day for Legend of Zelda references. I regret nothing.
If I make enough progress on this resolution, I’ll announce it later this year. At this point, it’s either a surprise I don’t want to spoil, or a plan I won’t reveal in case it fails; take your pick.
These are my resolutions for 2016. Yes, I know there are only three, and in years past I’ve had six. As 2015 reminded me, six is too many. The more resolutions I set, the easier it is for me to forget or ignore them. By setting only three, I’m more likely to remember and keep them.
At any rate, that’s the plan.
Do you have any resolutions for this year? Let us know in the comments!
Typewriter Monkey Task Force 
I think having fewer, more concrete goals is a good idea, and a sign of maturity. Ha ha, of course, my own list this year is 12 times longer than 2015! 😛 But to be fair – in my defense – each item is broken down into action-items that I can ACHIEVE. In previous years I would just write “draw more” but that means little when I don’t have daily markers to see if I drew more. Better is the goal “Draw for one hour every other day.” (Which, by the way, might help your prayer one, too. Maybe it could be “pray before each meal” or “pray every time I want to go read a Wikipedia article instead.” 🙂 )
I totally know what you mean about accidentally falling into meaningless activities without even trying. I mentioned to you before my thought of giving up the Internet for January because of that fact. (I ended up choosing limiting use to one hour per day instead, so I can try to use the productive aspect of the web http://jkriki.com/2016/01/04/why-im-leaving-the-internet-in-2016/ ) I guess the key is to catch yourself mid-meaninglessness so you can change course immediately. The snowball effect is great in terms of puttering around online. Ten minutes can flow quickly into hours…
I know, deep in my heart, the super secret resolution is to release Lance Elliot Books 2 and 3 this year, but you don’t want to get my hopes up if you only manage to release book 2. Don’t worry. Even if you only release book 2 this year and not both, I’ll be okay. I can wait for book 3 even if it’s delayed all the way until 2017, since I’ll have book 2 to keep me company. You don’t have to hide that plan.