11 in 11, Part 1

I was out last night at a happy hour when my friends and I started talking about New Years, and more specifically, New Year's resolutions. I hate resolutions.

I consider myself to be a creature of habit. I'll eat the same foods every night for weeks until I get sick of them, then I won't go near it for years until I finally decide to put it into my rotation again. I wash my sheets every Friday morning — no exceptions. My roommates can attest to this. I have a specific pre-running routine, which I won't discuss at the risk of losing my readers. I can be very particular about my routines, and I don't like to throw off my scheduling. Resolutions by definition mean that you must resolve to never do, or always do, a particular action in the future, and therefore break your routine. Ugh.

In addition to altering my day-to-day life, I think resolutions are trite and unoriginal. I looked on a few websites to see what the top 10 New Year's resolutions are, and I didn't see anything that I wouldn't expect.

1. Stop smoking. (I don't.)
2. Get fit. (I am.)
3. Lose weight. (I don't need to.)
4. Enjoy life more. (How do you monitor this?)
5. Quit drinking. (That's crazy.)
6. Organize yourself. (Have you met me?)
7. Learn something new. (Obviously I already know how to do everything.)
8. Get out of debt. (Thanks a lot, grad school.)
9. Spend more time with family. (I would if I could.)
10. Help people. (A little vague.)

Resolutions and I just do not work.

My friend did make a suggestion, though, that she wanted to make a list of 11 things to do in 2011. I really liked this idea, because it's original, and it doesn't limit me to feel like a failure when I screw up my one and only resolution. Plus, I can keep my normal routine, for the most part. So we decided to all create a list of 11 things (33 total, for those of you keeping track) we are going to complete in the year 2011. These items can range from just-for-fun, to self improvement, to community-minded. We want to motivate each other to complete the 11 items before December 31, 2011, and to stay on task throughout the year.

I started thinking last night of some things I wanted to do. **Spoiler Alert: I know one list item will be to run the Marine Corps Marathon next October, and luckily, one of my fellow list-makers wants to run her first marathon. I'm very excited to have a training buddy. Another one will be to maintain at least a 3.7 GPA in grad school. I intend to extend this goal throughout the 5 semesters I need to earn my Master's degree. I've mentioned in another post that I plan to travel throughout Europe — another item.

Besides those three, I have eight slots available. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. I will definitely post my completed list when it's compiled, and you can also make sure I do everything I put on the list. I'm sure this will lead to a number of posts, so stay tuned.

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