I am normally not a New Years Resolution kind of guy. I just think that the effort is generally pointless. People spend time coming up with random goals only to fail at those goals days into the new year.
This year, however, I have decided to list a few objectives -- not goals -- on which to focus in 2012. The first of these is writing. I would love to be able to write every day, even if that is just a few sentences a day. However, I know that if I set a goal to write all 366 days in 2012 (its a leap year), I will fail very quickly. Instead, I resolve to write much more, to focus on writing and to attempt to write as often and as many days as possible.
This writing will likely take the form of a blog (this one, the Walkable blog and another planned blog on minimalist living), the beginnings of a book idea I have and potentially some fiction writing. My hope is that the following will happen from much more frequent and focused writing:
1. I will improve in the craft of writing by practicing much more often;
2. New ideas will spring forward as I write about and think about various topics; and
3. I may inspire someone who reads this or any of my writing to make some change in his or her lives.
Last night I was reading several letters in the excellent collection of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's letters throughout his career. Obviously Moynihan spent much of his career before the advent of blogs, Twitter, etc. But he was a tremendously prolific writer with very broad and diverse interests. I'm often amazed at the foresight he had when reading his letters predicting the future of American society. Moynihan's letters clearly illustrate my point -- that practiced, focused and frequent writing helps not only in the craft of writing, but in the creation and formulation of new ideas. While I will never be as good a writer as Moynihan, I hope to use his inspiration to continue the pursuit of my New Year's .... resolution.
