101 in 1,001, over and partially done (#SFWApro)

For several years now, I’ve done the 101 in 1,001 approach to New Year’s Resolutions: pick 101 things to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Which were up Monday for the Jan. 1, 2013 list.

Total accomplished: 44 out of 101. Plus about ten items which I finished more than 50 percent of. That’s roughly 44 percent, compared to 63 percent, 44 percent and 50 percent on previous lists. The 63 percent is probably an outlier since it included a lot of items that weren’t optional (move to Durham to live with TYG, get married—no wriggle room on stuff like that).

I like these lists because they encourage more imagination than when I make out a list of year goals. 1,001 days seems so far away, I don’t feel inhibited about putting in something a little optimistic. And 101 is enough that I can put in some oddities: I have a book of solitaire games, so one of my items this go-round was to play one game a month (successful). Trivial, but I’d forgotten how much fun those games are (and there’s a much greater variety than what the computer offers).

My weakest performance was in writing goals, of which I only got a couple done. This is typical. Partly that’s because they’re not entirely in my hands—sell a dozen short stories was a good goal but not up to me—partly because they’re ambitious (more stuff than I can realistically accomplish) and partly because they’re scattershot. As I don’t know which novel will work best, I may put down two or three to finish in separate goals, even though I’m not going to get them all. I’m beginning to think a more focused list might work better—ambitious, but commit to specific projects.

The boring stuff, like housework goals, didn’t do well either. I do clean house, erratically (kitchen primarily as that’s where uncleanliness could lead to problems) but I just can’t sustain the pace I did just a few years ago. Whether that’s age, or learning not to worry about it or just the demands of everything else I don’t know, but I may skip that on the next list (which will kick off the coming New Year’s Day, of course). Or at least set a much lower threshold.

Some goals I’ve consistently flunked—do some theater up here in Durham—but they’ll go in again because they matter enough. Others are “done”—I don’t think I need to list getting out socially as a goal any more (it was more of an effort when I first got here and didn’t know anyone but TYG).

And I’d really like to add something adventurous and amazing, sort of like a big bucket list goal (that’s not related to writing) but I don’t know what yet. It’s a little trickier than it used to be as I have to consider TYG—if, say, I decided I wanted to travel the old Silk Road (for example only, I know that’s not the right one), I’m not sure she’d want to go.

I’ve got a bunch of items in my list already. I shall add more over the next couple of months then winnow them down. Let’s see what I come up with.