New Year's Resolutions

I was listening to the radio on the way in to work this morning and the dj was talking about how Judith Martin (aka Miss Manners) has said that people should make New Year's resolutions. Her reasoning? It's tradition. She then goes on, however, to say that it's pretty much inappropriate to ask anyone you're not amazingly good friends with what their resolutions, if any, are. Isn't that part of the tradition too?

I've always secretly wondered if half the people who ask about my resolutions haven't come up with any of their own and are trying to see if any of mine will work for them, too. That's primarly because the conversations tend to run something like this:
Random Friend: Beth, did you make any resolutions this year?
Me: Um. Well, not really official ones, but x, y, and z. What about you?
Random Friend: Oh, yeah, well x and z too, actually.
Me: Really? I don't think you need x.
Random Friend: That's so sweet, thanks. But you know blahblahblahblah.

As you can tell, x generally involves losing x ounces/pounds/tons/whatever.

So a few years ago, I decided that my one resolution would be to not make any other resolutions. You'd think that this would be the one resolution that you could make, year after year, and always keep. If you're me, you'd be wrong. I don't know why, but I just seem compelled to make resolutions at the last minute. And then feel terribly, horribly guilty for the remainder of the year as I realize that I 1) haven't even thought about said resolutions in the last month 2) have made no progress toward keeping said resolutions and 3) don't actually remember if that was the resolution I made or if it's one someone told me they were making. Then I start to feel annoyed with myself that I didn't just stick with my original resolution plan - the one to not make any resolutions - because then maybe I would be able to report some kind of progress toward keeping my resolution. If you compound this with the fact that around this time of year someone inevitably sees fit to remind me that the only people who succeed in life are the ones who write down their goals and track their progress toward them daily, you can see why I've started hating this time of year.

So once again the question was posed to me: what resolutions are you making this year? And, after I groaned and sighed and threw myself down on the ground for a good tantrum, I decided that I should spend some time thinking about it. I have a lot of them rolling around in my head, most of them actually achievable and worthwhile. But I don't want to tell anyone what they are, because I want them to stay mine. I don't want them held up for everyone else to compare theirs to so that I start to feel either like one more cow in the herd or just plainly inadequate because my resolution is so much less worthwhile than theirs is.

I will probably make a few resolutions this year. And I'll write them down and track my progress. But I doubt very much that I'll tell anyone else about them. And maybe, just maybe, that will be the trick that makes this year a success.

That aside, if you want to share yours, I'd love to hear them. After all, they might be something I want to steal for myself!

(Linked to Bloggin' Outloud)