The 11 Year-old Sage

We had a great New Year’s Eve party last night – every single person was someone who was kind, funny and just an all around down-to-earth soul. That is really something to be thankful for – not having to think about that one or two people who you invite but you know are not really letting their hair down or going to have that judgmental conversation on the way home.

As I was getting ready for the party, my 11 year old daughter made up her 2015 resolutions list (posted above). This was her idea and I had absolutely no input.

What is so impressive about this list is how specific and measurable each item is. I have been to countless meetings at work and read numerous advice blogs and posts about the importance of breaking down larger goals into bite size chunks and quantifying things so you have an achievable and measurable target. This did not come naturally to me (and still doesn’t sometimes) yet here it is in black and white – or rather blue and red, as the (patriotic) case may be – from an 11 year old.

She is going to check off each and every one of those boxes, too. If you know Robyn – that’s her style – she doesn’t announce it to anyone, doesn’t make a big deal about it – just goes about getting it done. My 13 year old, has some goals of his own, too – these revolve around high school – which he will enter in the Fall. I am going to work with him to break these down into measurable hours of studying time. Wish me luck!

All in all, today is Thursday for me – not the 1st day of a New Year, nor the start of a new resolution – other than to write more on this blog. It struck me last night, after the last guests left around 2 AM, that there was no transition from tucking my kids into bed to getting myself to sleep. This is the first New Year’s in a very long time where there was no one lying next to me to share those thoughts of the party, the New Year, the kids, etc. It wasn’t necessarily sad as it was notable.

Things are good, and though the reality of hitting work hard again starting Monday is close at hand, I have nothing to complain about and am just going to take Robyn’s advice and break down my goals into more specific metrics:

1. 1 final edit on my completed screenplay

2. One completed screenplay (new and collaboration)

3. Film 4 skits that I wrote

4. Finally have 4 songs I wrote recorded

5. Exercise 3/week

That’s it – not resolutions – these are things I have already been working on or toward but it was more like “Exercise more, write more, record more”. “More”, like “should” should be banned from the dictionary!

Now back to that checklist.

Marc