With an eye toward resolutions

I don't see the logic of ending one year and beginning another in the middle of winter. Spring is the time of rebirth and renewal, it is more logical and poetic to mark the passing of one year into the next on the first day of spring. Personally, that's when I intend to celebrate the new year, but because virtually all of human society goes off the Gregorian calendar, I am forced to, in some ways, go along with it. I can't keep signing my paychecks with '2011,' for one.

There are ways I don't have to, however. If I stay up until midnight on Saturday it won't be to watch a ball drop, but because I'm caught up in playing Epic Mickey (I got some gift cards for Christmas and put them towards a Wii; I really only wanted it for the one game, but I'm loving it, so I'm having fun).

Another thing, one I had originally intended to sidestep, was the issue of New Year resolutions. I don't have much success, or much of an attempt history, at them; the general trope seems to be they're all doomed to failure. Also, while I understand the idea of using New Year as a time to start, I think people limit themselves as viewing only this time as a point for making huge changes (lose 100 pounds, prepare to run a marathon, etc.). As the article I linked to states, smaller and less vague goals are better. And why wait for the changing of years to make incremental changes in your life? So I was originally going to wait until the arrival of spring to make some real resolutions, attempting to make smaller changes in my day-to-day life until then so it wouldn't be as if I had hit the ground running.

But there's one thing about that which concerns me. If I had no bigger plans for the future, just my writing and some vague idea of going to Los Angeles to try working in film, that would be one thing. Easing into life changes would be fine as far as I'm concerned.

But I mentioned a while back that there is something a bit more immediate. The application process for the JET program starts in the fall. I haven't done too much research yet into what an applicant needs (part of the reason is I'm afraid I'll find out I'm disqualified for some reason, and thus the path will be erased before I even started down it; at the very least, I'd like to leave the dream in front of me while I can), but I am certain some familiarity with the Japanese language would be at least bonus. To that end, I need to brush up on my Japanese (read: more or less try to relearn everything I've learned already). Waiting until March to begin doing what I can (and should) do now would be irresponsible.

So I find myself preparing to undertake a resolution at the same time everyone else is. But not because everyone else is and not because it's the traditional thing, but because I should have been doing it months ago.

I have excuses, of course. Trying to do too much other stuff like watch movies and read and whatnot. And I know I sound less-than-sincere when I say I've just bought a video game system as I should be studying a non-Western language (with all the difficulty that implies). So in addition to making time to study I need to make a comparable sacrifice in time I would spend watching or reading. One "easy" way to help this is to not buy any new books or movies or anything; it comes with the added benefit of freeing up the money I would otherwise spend.

I also need to cut myself off from the Internet more. I mentioned months ago having to stop visiting Gaia for a week and how hard it was to not compulsively check my market listings, but there are other sites and whatnot that I have a similar trouble with. As I titled that other post I recognize the compulsion, the fabled first step toward change. So I also need stop checking certain sites 20 times a day, checking Tweetdeck every five minutes.

So what do I have?

-Study Japanese
-Watch less movies and read less books
-Spend less time online

How do I quantify any of those? With the Internet one I just have to stop myself every time I have an urge to check Site X. Going cold turkey may not be the best thing, I genuinely wonder if checking the sites (even if no update has taken place) affects my brain chemistry in some way. Will I suffer some sort of withdrawal?

And as far as the "less movies, less books" goes, I should amend that to include less going over what I've seen/read before. Try to cut down on watching movies or TV shows I've seen before, even if the familiarity is comforting in some way. I have plenty of books I haven't read yet, a huge stack of surfing magazines, and a pretty full Netflix queue. So not only should I pace myself, but I should focus on new things as well.

But there's still the problem of quantifying. Or maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong perspective, and instead of trying to devote X hours a day or week to reading I should look at it in terms of end results. Read this book or watch that movie, or make time for doing so after I've done my studying. Back in high school I used a daily planner all the time, and I was damn good at it (if I say so). Sort of fell out of that in college and beyond, when I didn't have so many daily assignments. And when I tried using a planner again earlier this year it didn't work out.

One problem I'm more aware of now is that my work isn't the best at scheduling me for a full 40 hours each week, but they ARE good at needing someone to come in on the spur of a moment because they didn't plan ahead or stuff piled up or whatever. So I'll get a call in the morning, asking if I can come in, and since I'd need the hours I'd say yes and whatever plans I may have had for that day are out the window until I get back from the unexpected day of work.

So, to wrap up these ramblings, I need cut back on my intake of media and focus my attention towards studying (and writing, which I didn't mention because I talk about it too much as it is). And what media I do consume, I need to go with the new instead of what I'm already familiar with.

Let's see how that goes.