In the fashion of screenwriting guru John August, I’ve decided to make my New Year resolutions more about areas of focus than specific statements. It’s very easy to slip from a targeted goal, but much easier to simply keep a particular frame of mind, so that’s what I’m aiming for.
2010 is going to be an insanely busy year for me. Around about June I become a Dad. If things go according to schedule, in February I will own a home. Making things busier still will be my first goal:
1) Focus more on creative work
I’d like to say that I’m going to crank out a couple screenplays and a novel this year (and that’s really what I’ll be keeping in the back of my mind), but I think it’s more reasonable to tell simply ensure I’m continuing to think about and chip away at creative work. I want to be making sure that a certain portion of my free time goes to continuing this trend—and I’d like to start doing a bit more learning and exercises as it relates to writing.
To date, I’ve depended largely on natural ability to get me through most things. I don’t do so well with intense practice at much of anything and tend to reach a point at which my ability plateaus on its own and that’s where I rest. Sure, I have a degree in Writing, but my previous statement holds true for my time in that program as well. I was good enough at the outset to work through all those classes, and didn’t really sit around studying techniques and methods and writing out exercises. In 2010 I want to work on actually improving my work rather than simply doing more of it. This means I’ll be tackling more sitting on park benches and writing descriptions of what I see and trying out small page-long exercises.
2) Focus more on single tasking
You can’t multitask with a baby. Rather, I don’t want to. It’s not something I want to start training an infant to do, and that makes this year the perfect time to break the habit for myself. A subset here (2a) will be Shave More/Shave Better. In 2010 I want to get to the point where I’m shaving daily. I’ve got pretty sensitive skin on my face, so I think it’s time to delve into the tricks and techniques of this classic bit of manitude. I have the resources near to hand. This just seems like one of those things that every dude should know how to do, and the only reason I’m not better about it now is that I don’t take the time to allow myself to be. So I wake up 10 minutes earlier to get it done. I can handle that.
3) Focus more on my leisure
A subset of this is 3a) Read more. I’m going to relax a bit more. Janelle and I have a lot of fun, but we’re also busy a fair amount of time. 2010 is going to have a lot more of my sitting around the house and doing what I want to do. From reading to watching DVDs to writing to playing games. It’s hobby-time.
4) Focus more on my health
I don’t want to lose a certain amount of weight or get a certain number of abs (27), I’d rather just make sure that I’m thinking about better choices, plain and simple.