New Year's Resolution time...

Like a lot of people, I try to start the new year with a goal in mind and, like a lot of people, i'm not always successful in achieving it. Keeping this in mind, I thought I'd try a new approach to goal/resolution setting for 2015. One of my favorite bloggers, John Michael Greer, offered a challenge of sorts for creating new year's resolutions in his blog, The Archdruid Report. The challenge is threefold and exceedingly simple:

• Learn one thing
• Give up one thing
• Save one thing

Doesn't get much simpler. I'm sure you can easily come up with a list of your own ideas for what you might want to learn, give up, and save. All the same, here's my own personal list of ideas with my own choices for 2015 in bold print...



LEARN SOMETHING

1. MCMAP (Marine Corp Martial Arts Program)
2. Krav maga
3. Spanish
4. Japanese
5. Chi kung (or qigong or whatever you want to call it)
6. Water distillation
7. Organic gardening
8. Seed saving
9. How to dress and prepare game and livestock
10. Make a favorite food from scratch
11. Counseling (recommend Human Givens approach)
12. Identify, prepare, and eat three wild edible plants in your immediate area
13. Theravada buddhism
14. Vipassana meditation
15. How to make a PVC pipe bow
16. Bike repair
17.  The ins and outs of using a particular blogging software
18. Zero in on one part of history and study it in depth (example: the great depression)
19. Solve Rubik's Revenge cube
20. Beekeeping
21. Three card monte
22. Aikijo
23. Systema
24. Phlebotomy

GIVE UP SOMETHING

1. Franchised fast food
2. Big box stores
3. Coffee (drink green tea instead)
4. Truck or car (or at least limit use)
5. Credit cards
6. TV (or at least limit use)
7. Sweets (or at least do with certain kinds)
8. Amazon.com
9. pork
10. Beef
11. Caffeine

SAVE SOMETHING

1. Donate blood at least four times (***I'll count this as saving lives***)
2. Top soil
3. Compost
4. Grey water
5. Set up and use a composting toilet
6. Start up and/or lobby for a community garden
7. Stray cats in your area? Consider becoming a TNR colony caretaker (find info at Humane Society and Alley Cat Allies websites)
8. Plant a perennial
9. Seedball a vacant lot with wild edible plant seeds
10. Use reusable bags for shopping (most grocery stores will even give you a discount for using them)
11. Donate used books to the library
12. Donate used clothes to Goodwill, Salvation Army, D.A.V., etc.
13. Your teeth (floss daily)
14. Energy ("heat the body, not the home")
15. use your local independent bookstore

That's my list(s). I feel like I should point out that I've already met some of these resolutions and some of them are already a part of my daily routine. I only included them to help with your own idea generating. Also, as I read over them, I can't help but notice some overlap where a couple of ideas could easily be combined ("compost" and "composting toilet," for example). In such circumstances, whether or not to do so is totally up to you. Also, some of my ideas are more practical and applicable to improving quality of life than others (solving Rubik's Revenge?), but it's my list and what's meaningful to me.

Of course it's best to write out your won list with goals and/or resolutions that are meaningful to you. Take the time to write out your own--come up with as many ideas as you can for each category--and highlight the one in each category you want to accomplish in 2015. And after you've taken the time to do it...A couple of quick pieces of advice...

Pick one and only one goal for each of the categories. I'm sure some of the ideas you generated in your own list come across as not-too-difficult, and maybe you can see yourself following through on all of them. That's fine. By all means, stretch yourself. I plan to do the same. Having said that, though, only make one "learn," one "give up," and one "save" your priority. I think it's probably better to come through on only one than to "come close" to following through on a few. And focus is important. it's obviously easier to focus on one goal as opposed to a bunch.

Draw out a short-term and long-term plan to guide your progress. For example, I plan on using MCMAP: The Complete Combat System as my text. I'd love to take an actual class, but that's not really possible where I am, at least not without putting a lot of miles on my truck. (Besides, I'm not even all that sure there are any MCMAP instructors or classes available for us non-marines.) I plan on dividing the book into chunks that can easily be worked through over the course of the first six months of the year and then using the remaining six months to hone all the techniques. There are also youtube videos I can add to my "self study" course. But yea, if necessary, treat it as a college course only one where you are both the instructor and the student. Write out your own syllabus and follow it as closely as you can.

If you've decided to take the learn/give up/save challenge for the new year then great. Hope it all works out for you and have a great 2015...