New Year's Resolution (2009) How Did I Do? - JohnDoe8865's Blog

JohnDoe8865's Blog

New Year's Resolution (2009) How Did I Do?

Posted on December 31, 2009 at 02:00 AM.

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Well it's almost 2010 now and as I look back and reflect on the year (and the decade) that was, I wanted to check in here at the Ol' OS Blog. I wanted to go back to my posting from December 29th, 2008. It was then that I posted 4 major New Year's Resolutions for the year 2009.

The past year was filled with many ups and downs, I was laid off, broke up with a g/f, got the Swine Flu, and generally had a rough go the last 6 months of the year in my personal life.

On the other hand, I am (reasonably) healthy, I still have all of my closest friends and family, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, a dry place to sleep at night, and I like to think I've learned a lot in the year that was.

The things about 2009 that I will remember forever include, my best friends' having their first child, getting laid off after 3 1/2 years of steady employment, my 2 yr old niece's first trip to the beach this past summer, watching UFC 100 in Boone, being in a major car accident, and my 10 year class reunion. Those are the snapshots of my life in 2009 that I will always carry with me.

All in all, it's very hard for me to rate 2009 as a one year capsule in my life. The first half of the year was pretty great, and then after I was laid off things took a turn for the worse and my personal life really suffered because of it all.

So now, let's look back at my "resolutions" for 2009 and assign a final grade to them. Maybe we'll make some more meaningful resolution for 2010 at the end as well ...

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	1) Change my job/Start a career for myself. - I'm 27 years old and treading water. I am at a job, not working on a career. Furthermore I hate my job 99% of the time. I can't make enough money to move my life forward in my current situation which leads into my next resolution ...

Haha, well I did "change my job", but not in the way that I had hoped. I was laid off in May of 2009 and haven't been able to find work (or a purpose) since. Now it's true that I did hate my job at times, but I wish I had seeked other employment more vigorously while I was still employed at my last job. I can honestly say I did nothing to cause my termination. That helps ease the sting and the feelings of being worthless just a little.

Overall Grade - 4/10

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	2) Save more money. - I can be a frivolous spender at times. I buy entirely too much "stuff" just so I can say that I have it. I am more of a collector at this point when it comes to buying stuff than I am anything else. This also ties into my next goal ...

I did well this year considering that I was laid off. I can honestly say that I haven't had to endure many lean times this year, thank God. However I still don't have any amount of savings to speak of, and I'm still an impulsive buyer.

Overall Grade - 5/10

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	3) Spend less money of gaming. - I buy too many video games at full price and don't end up getting nearly my monies worth. Hell, I still have several games in my backlog that are still unplayed or even unopened.

I can go ahead and call this one. 2009 was a complete and utter failure for me in this category. I probably spent more money on used and new games than 2008. I did manage however, to pass on a few unworthy sports titles that I would have bought in the past. Still, 2009 was a record year for video game spending for me.

Overall Grade - 1/10

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	4. Spend more time with those that are most important to me - family and friends. - Just what it says, spend more time and appreciate that time, with my family and my good friends. I've started this one already, but I need to commit to following through from here on out.

Here is another resolution that must be split into two categories. The first 6 months and the last 6 months. In the first 6 months of 2009, I did a great job of balancing family and friends. Probably as well as I ever have.

After being laid off in late May, I lost contact with some of my friends from work, and I also withdrew a little bit from certain friends and parts of my family. I did manage to re-discover the friendship of one of my cousins, and it has been great. I'm hoping to reach out to more members of my extended family in 2010.

My best friend and his girlfriend had a baby in September and that was great. I stayed at the hospital for 24 hours + with no sleep and I feel like it made us all much closer.

I also continued to spend more time with my brother, but probably grew a little further away from my mother and that's unfortunate. This is the only resolution from 2009, that I feel comfortable giving a passing grade.

Overall Grade - 6/10

Now onto to 2010. I literally have no clue what 2010 holds for me. I haven't been this unsure of what life means to me and what role I will play since 2000-2002. There is a better than good chance that I will change where I live. There exists the real possibility that I could spend a large part of 2010 unemployed and that is depressing. I would say that my priorities in life have definitely shifted somewhat from December 2008 to December 2009.

What I'm gonna do is rattle off a few of the major things that I'd like to accomplish in 2010 and God willing, I'll be back in 2011 to review and see how I did.

#1 Goal for 2010 - Find long term employment. - I'd love to find a job where I can begin a career. I'm 28 years old. This is the most important thing to me. I must become more career oriented. If I don't do anything else in 2010, I NEED to make this happen. I need a purpose, a reason for getting up every morning, and having a job has done that for me in my life.

#2 Find a girl to settle down with... or don't - I've been playing the field for a long time. I'm nearing 30 years old. It's about time that I get more serious about whether or not I want a relationship. If you ask me this same question two days in a row you will get two different answers.

#3 Focus more on God's blessings, and less on what I don't have - This one should be a no-brainer, but I often find myself stuck in a mental "rut" asking myself 'why me'? I really want to seize control of my daily life and a large part of that has to do with my attitude. I feel like if I accomplish this goal, it will help me exponentially to reach my other goals for 2010.

Those are the main 3 goals that I really want to pursue above all else in 2010. Of course there are many smaller goals involving money, friends, and other things that I don't have direct control over. Those would just be gravy if I can stick to my beliefs and stay determined to make the 3 major ideas above work for me in 2010.