2010 a new year and a new decade. Time for a new start I think.

Every new year I make resolutions and every year I fail to achieve any of them.

The reasons for my failings are many and varied but often fall down to my resolutions simply being too ambitious and, therefore too difficult for me to achieve.

At the beginning of the last decade I was overweight and unhealthy from too many years of lorry driving and drinking excessively during the 1990’s. In the first 3 years of the 2000’s I took some steps to improve my health. I stopped drinking alcohol completely, I changed to a more physical job and I started to exercise. I became the fittest I have ever been in my life and stayed that way for a good few years. Over the last 2 years I have let myself go quite a lot. Some of this I can put down to my return to lorry driving and the hours associated with such a job. The rest is my loss of motivation. Most of my resolutions stem from this situation, here’s the list:

This year then I have set myself some simpler goals that I think I can achieve or come close to achieving:

1. To lose weight and get fit.  I have already cut alcohol out. I took my last drink at midnight to see in the New Year. My short-term goal is to make it through to my birthday in March without drinking any alcohol.  Next week I am joining the gym with my son and today I will start my regular exercise by taking the dogs out for a longish walk.

2. To change my job. I know that my job is not good for me. I don’t enjoy it anymore and the long hours and lack of quality time with my family is beginning to have consequences on my health and the relationship I have with my family. This may be a difficult one to achieve but I’m going to try my hardest to be in a better job by the end of the year.

3. To get paid for my writing and/or my photography. This is a completely new area to me even though I have always written and taken photos, this has been on a purely hobby basis. This is taking me out of my comfort zone, let’s have some fun and see what happens!!

Ok, that’s about it. I have other goals for 2010 but they involve other people. What I have outlined above are my personal goals for this New Year.