Goals for 2012

Last year, I set out several goals for myself, and I did not really accomplish any of them. I feel somewhat guilty about this, but more so because I feel like I could have done more with my spare time in 2011, and instead I spent a lot of time doing non-productive things. And I know I shouldn't feel too guilty about that; everyone needs down time and a chance to just relax. Also, the curse of New Year's resolutions is that they almost always seem to go unfulfilled, leaving the resolver to feel bad if he or she even remembers them.

So what can I do differently in 2012? Well, I am trying a different approach this year. I have two goals, and they're pretty general. But I think I can use them to make better informed decisions about how I spend my free time. My two goals for 2012 are:

1. Be more creative.
2. Do things that benefit others.

These are pretty general goals, but then planning one's goals for an entire year should probably be pretty general. I might come up with specific projects during the year, but I want to use my goal-making to orient myself a certain way. I want to feel more productive, more helpful, and more creative. So if I pick goals along those lines, it will be (theoretically) easier for me to look at my options for free time and ask, What will help me feel more productive and creative: writing something or playing a video game?

At the same time, I also don't want to make any unreasonable promises, like, "I will not play video games in 2012." Obviously I will. I love video games, while I'm playing them. But I should play them sparingly, so the experience of playing them can remain enjoyable without consuming all my time and making me feel like I'm wasting time.

Even harder than video games, I think this means I have to consider what I read more carefully. I spend a lot of time reading fiction, but I find that much of what I read feels forgettable shortly after reading it. And reading a book is a pretty big time commitment. On the other hand, almost any non-fiction book I read leaves me with ideas for things to do, new information I find interesting, or just a general sense of accomplishment. So I should scale back what fiction I read to only things I really enjoy, and instead read more non-fiction.

More ideas will come to me, I'm sure. But I wanted to write something down so I can look back at this as January starts out.