It’s that time of year when everybody is making resolutions to improve themselves: the start of a new year, the thinking goes, is auspicious for new beginnings, and plus, everybody else is doing it. I’ve been asked a dozen times whether I had any New Year’s resolutions, and I usually answer with a poor joke: I resolve not to make New Year’s Resolutions. In all honesty, I’ll probably just continue with these resolutions I made at arbitrary times of last year:

  1. Drink more water. I think a lot of people know I’m in a state of constant dehydration; my chapped lips don’t appreciate the snide comments, Certain Former Coworker Who Should Really Mind His Own Business. The thinking is that being properly hydrated will have a cascade of positive health benefits: I’ll feel better, have better skin, and have more energy. I’m not sure if it’s true, and I know I’ll miss the one positive benefit of not being hydrated: I never need bathroom breaks and am a champ at watching movie marathons in a single sitting.
  2. I will not go see live shows of bands with four or more members who are only white dudes. Over the past year, I’ve been increasingly concerned with ideas of diversity and representation. I may not have very many options in TV and movies, (there are only so many quality shows out there),but I can at least try to encourage more diversity in my listening habits (since black people are at the root of most of the genres we listen to, this shouldn’t be as hard.) Moreover, you would think after your third member, you could at least find one person who isn’t male or exclusively white. It shouldn’t be a difficult proposition.
  3. Exercise more regularly. Journal more regularly. Meditate more regularly. These are pretty usual resolutions that I began using Beeminder for last year.

With that said, I do have one new resolution for the new year:

  1. Stop lying to Beeminder about all of the water drinking/working out/meditating I haven’t been doing.

We’ll see how these resolutions work out. Since I started them at an arbitrary time, I can always start them later if I fail. With the advent of the year of the Horse (my astrological sign), if I believed in astrology, the whole year is an auspicious time to start a new resolution.