Resolved to change

I hate new year resolutions!

At least I have for quite a long time. I think they’re cliché, they’re too often setting yourself up for failure — people don’t realise that change and improvement usually don’t happen in a linear fashion — and if you really want to make a change, or want to achieve something, just do it! You don’t have to wait for new year to better yourself or achieve goals.

That said, this last week or so has been pretty chilled for me, and a good opportunity to think, review and plan. It is actually a nice chance to think about what to work on and how to approach it. One of the things I hate about new year resolutions is the lack of follow through: people say they want something to happen, but do nothing to make it happen. And it’s a failing of my own as well: too often I think about doing something, but don’t do it. So, the how to approach it stage is a grand step towards actually taking action.

Some tips for successful change

• Don’t just think, do
• Change usually doesn’t happen overnight, nor is it consistent — there will be ups and downs
• If you fall off the wagon, you haven’t failed (or if you have, your goal might have been too ambitious), just get back on at the first available opportunity

What changes do I want to make?

Well, unfortunately, due to a lack of exercise and possibly too much take away food, I’ve put back on a fair bit of the weight I lost. I’m super keen to lose that and keep it off. One of the methods to achieve this is to practice my karate kata at home every weekday, or close to it. I’ll need more exercise than that, but it’s a start.

I want to make more Thesis skins and plugins. It was my hope to do that last year, and while I made a couple of free plugins and one paid child theme, I want to do more.

I want to make a series of video tutorials about making websites (I think the series will be called Websites Back to Front). These will involve using FTP, HTML, CSS, WordPress and Thesis. I believe there are good videos and tutorials out there, but I think I’m in a good position to reach some keen beans that those other tutorials haven’t reached yet.

There is much more I want to do, but I don’t want to set myself up for failure by listing too many of them here (and I don’t mind if some of them happen in years to come).

Happy new year everyone!

Good luck, or if you believe in him, happy God’s providence to you.