I’ve never really been much of a New Year’s Resolution kind of guy. In fact, over the years I’ve become less and less goal oriented in general, other than for accomplishing a specific task.

Even still, I do have a habit of making up short lists of things I’d like to accomplish during the year–let’s see how I did for 2012 and what I have in mind for 2013…

Here’s what I came up with for last year:

2012 New Year Resolutions

1. Lose at least 20 pounds and get back into shape – Would you believe 11 pounds? Not quite there, but going in the right direction at least! And “back in shape”? An elusive thing to measure, but I did start becoming more active than in 2011 after getting the old right knee fixed.
2. Obtain TESL Certificate – DONE Sept 2012.
3. Pay off and close [a specific credit card account] – DONE Nov 2012. I actually did better than that, closing out THREE accounts by December 31. In fact, I managed to pay off around 25% of my non-mortgage debt, which is a great relief–and will be very important for what I do next in 2013 and beyond…
   
4. Do not buy ANY paper books—only ebooks—during 2012 (except Japanese language manga) – I think I stuck to this pretty well, though I can’t be absolutely positive. I did make much more of an effort to buy eBooks first whenever possible.

I’m more-or-less satisfied with how this turned out. Now, on to this year:

2013 New Year Resolutions

I’ve come up with two more than last year, but I’m also hoping to get more done in 2013. A couple of them are fairly generic and more like “things I’d like to do” than what I would actually consider goals or resolutions:

1. Do not eat out more than 5 times per week (excluding “Special Occasions” or when traveling)
2. Purchase a new bicycle and begin riding again for fun and transportation (my old mountain bike was stolen out of my storage unit last year…)
3. Pay off and close [a specific credit card account] and at least 1/2 of [a specific loan account]
4. Only shop on weekends–and that includes online purchases
5. Begin playing tennis again for fun
6. Do not buy any wargaming stuff for anything other than 10mm scale

Number 1 began with my resolve to pay as little sales tax as possible to the morally, politically and financially bankrupt state of California, but it will also save me a LOT of money–and I’m sure to eat healthier as well. I still left myself plenty of wiggle room, but believe me–cutting down to 5x/week will be an improvement.

Number 2 is because I’ve finally decided to pull the trigger and purchase the coolest bike ever invented, the iF Mode from Pacific Cycles. I’ve wanted one ever since first laying eyes on a photo in 2008. However, before opening up the coffers for such a spendy outlay, I want to make sure my knees are up to the task, which I will do over the next few months by using stationary bikes at the gym.

Number 3 continues with my get-out-of-debt goals from last year.

Number 4 stems from two thoughts: first, it will minimize the allure and impact of spur-of-the-moment shopping and second, because I’ve arranged things to do all my spending on a single credit card which normally gives me 1% cash back–but 2% cash back on weekends.

Number 5 is the first “like to do” and has the additional benefit of helping me get more active and back in shape. It’s already been 6 years since I took my first Beginning Tennis class and I want to get back to it because I really enjoyed it. It’s certainly a LOT cheaper than golf and much more active. This will be mostly for fun because I have no delusions of ever being very good at my advancing age…

Number 6 is my other “like to do”. My perpetual desire to streamline and rationalize my other hobby, based on a very rational decision to consolidate to a single scale (from about 8).

So there you have it: what I want to accomplish this year. There are also other big plans in the works that I’m not willing to discuss at this time. Sorry for boring you with all this, but I figured I’d be able to hold myself more accountable if I put these in writing. Wish me luck!