Create Every Day

Well, it’s that time again.  The new year is rolling over, and it’s time to play the Resolutions Game.  Hooray!  Time again to see what I want to do in the new year, and what I’ll look back on with groans next year.  Oh, what fun!

Actually, I think that making resolutions — even the ones that don’t pan out — is a good thing.  For me, it provides a way to keep track of what it is I’m working towards, and a record of where I was and where I thought I was going.  It’s also a way to sum up one year and lay out grand plans for the next.  Sort of a “year in review,” if you will.  So I’ve learned to value my resolutions, even if they are a bunch of pie-in-the-sky ideas.

I think people get tied up a lot in the idea that goals that got dropped by the wayside are somehow indicative of major failures.  Well, sure, they’re failures.  But not always the way that people expect.  There are lots of reasons why resolutions fail, and usually it’s because they weren’t very well thought out to start with.  I think people would value resolutions much more if they took the time to look at why they didn’t pan out.  So, in that vein, here’s a few from last year, and why they did (or didn’t) work out:

• Maintain my blog – Well, it’s from two years ago, but I carried renewed this goal in 2010.  I’ll give this goal a B-.  I did manage to keep posting, but not nearly at the rate that I had initially wanted to.  I think that the realities of trying to post and keep a semblance of a life are much more difficult than I thought.  I also need to start doing shorter posts.  But it seems that every time I sit down to write it always gets longer than I expected.  Maybe I should add a new goal to be more terse in my writing. 🙂  This one will stick around into 2011.
• Process and upload at least two photos per week – Well I’ll be darned… I think I made this one!  Granted, a big chunk of those came from Dore’s and my trip to New Zealand, and another chunk of recently posted shots, but I did manage to do it.  I’ll give this one an A-, as I still see room to improve in doing more artistic postprocessing work.  Hopefully that will be an easier now with the super-cool DxO software that Dore got me for Christmas.  Another keeper for 2011, although perhaps with a stronger emphasis on artistic quality.
• Critique at least one photo per week – Not even close.  Well, not in any written form.  I have been doing a lot of critiquing as mental exercises, and have been making a conscious effort lately to view and comment on more photos on Flickr.  But nothing very organized.  I’ll give this one a C-.  But I think that the goal may have been a bit misplaced.  If this makes it onto the 2011 list I expect it will be in a revised form.
• Make three fine-art prints (due April 1st) – A dismal failure.  I don’t think I printed anything this year.  I still want to do this, but I don’t see it happening immediately.  I’ve got some other projects to do first.  I’m thinking of going with a photo book project in 2011 instead.
• Finish unpacking our apartment – Yay!  This is both complete, and we’ve started paring down our belongings.  I hope to continue this trend in the new year.

There are a couple of other projects I see on my backlog, but I think those are enough for now.  Overall I’m pretty pleased, and in a couple of cases really surprised.  Last year wasn’t as bad as I thought for resolutions.

Hopefully 2011 will be similarly blessed. 🙂