...Upheld New Year's Resolution No.11

Every year I think about making a New Year's Resolution or two, but then usually end up deciding against it. I think it's because I read somewhere once that the very act itself sets people up to fail. The whole element of "wild proclamation of drastic and immediate change" inherent in any decent NYR means that it can reasonably be viewed as a self-sabotaging act of setting the bar far too high, far too quickly. Like you wouldn't run 2km every day for a whole year, then on one wild and crazy night after two bottles of wine, seven shots of Jagermeister and/or half a slab of beer just suddenly decide you were going to wake up the very next day and run 25km. So why should you do the equivalent with life goals on NYE? Coloured in that light, the NYR seems NQR indeed.

This New Year's Eve just gone, however, I was holding up a glass that looked distinctly half full, so I decided to do something out of character and go for broke this year. Sure, by throwing this particular set of dice you could roll snake eyes... but you could also roll whatever number it is in craps that's really, really good. I think that might be twelve? Anyway, the actual number itself is not so important - you just need to know that when you blow on those bad boys on January 31st and yell "mama needs a new pair of shoes", sure you could end up with ol' beady eyes for your trouble, but you also have just as much chance of it actually turning out in your favour. As a result, I've thrown caution to the wind and made not one, but twenty, New Year's Resolutions for 2011. Some of them are big, some of them are small. No.8 is "Food detox for two weeks". No.1 is "Give blood". No.20 is to "Learn new things for 'fun' and not for work". No.19 is "Clean the car inside and out - particularly getting rid of all the crap in the boot". I'm not going to go on and tell you all of them because they belong to me and my 'musk lolly' pink Moleskine notebook. But all of them, like No.8, No.1, No.20 and No.19, are things swirling around in my head that I know if I put into action will make me feel much more like life is me coasting downhill, standing up on the pedals while my wheels whir around and the wind whooshes past, as opposed to how it felt in 2010 (a great year, but hard one, where my poor little drumsticks got tired from riding uphill the whole time).

So anyway, I'm happy to report that six days into the New Year I'm feeling confident that luck can be a lady and am even happier to report that what I did today was to uphold New Year's Resolution No.11: "Don't drive anywhere I can comfortably ride". Sure it meant jamming my helmet down on the best hair I've had in the last fortnight and riding my bike while wearing brown cowboy boots (with no grip on the soles) and a pink checkered cotton dress (that I'm sure more than a couple of motorists were trying to look up at the traffic lights). But hell, it felt great, so come in spinner!