Last year I decided to go against the grain and bypass listing my resolutions for that year.  While not entirely a flop, last year my unwritten resolution goals were not fully accomplished either.

Surprisingly, I learned a lot from not having written goals, and the depth of my understanding goes all the way to the core of the way I live my life.  It really was a liberating experience, and served as a kind of burning it all up and starting from scratch kind of experience.  Now that just ashes of my understanding exists, it’s time to form a new base for my life going forward.

So without further ado, here are my Lifestyle New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Expect the Unexpected – I’m planning on move quickly around any impediments, take advantage of the positive opportunities, and crush and destroy negative or harmful barriers.  I will no longer let unexpected happenings cause me to freeze into periods of inactivity.
2. Enforce My Body Weight to Stay Within an Acceptable Range – There are few things in life that I have absolute control over but for the most part, my weight is one of those things in life that I can directly control by eating properly and exercising.  Based on previous experience, my target weight range will be 185 to 215 for the next 20 years.  Currently my weight is 245, so I need to lose at least thirty pounds in 2012 and preferably the sooner the better.
3. Expand My Online Activities and Understanding - I want to continue to learn more about the online environment that I blog in and further my online activities so that I”m more in touch with what is happening.  I also want to continue my tech understanding of the structures that make this world tick, with the end goal of becoming more of a webmaster type of person.
4. Enjoy My Life More – In my family it’s all about our kids (and it still will be), but I now realize that I’m more than just a family COG, working my life always so my kids can have a better life than I am having.  I need to develop new and exciting interest if not for my sake, then for my kids.  I’ve learned that they see and absorb when I do and expand on the base that I provide.  At some level I knew this, but I didn’t have enough money to do much back then.  While I’m still not wealthy, I plan on using some of the dividend money that I collect to do more “me” things that will enrich both my life and the live’s of my kids.
5. Experiment and Think “Out of the Box” More – Last year some of the enthusiasm and “Out of the Box” thinking that I had initially when I started blogging fell by the wayside.  To counter going stale, next year I plan on altering my posting schedule so that I post every other day instead of trying to post daily like I did at the beginning and middle of last year, and do and track my experiments with more vigor.

The above five “E” Goals are my primary “hard” Lifestyle Goals.  I also plan on doing some minor, more checklist style of goals.

• Buy a shotgun (maybe two), and go skeet shooting (if I can find a place)
• Save at least 20% of my income
• Buy either myself or my wife a new (well really used, but newer) car.  Probably a Toyota Sienna.
• Get Passports for the entire family
• Go on a big vacation for the year (hopefully Hawaii).
• Double my blog traffic (current traffic is 400 daily visits).  Not sure how yet, but hopefully I’ll figure it out soon!!!
• Have a more positive effect on my surroundings and friends.
• Organize my life more by buying a tablet, iPad, or smart phone/iPhone/iPod Touch

And now to wait for the new year!  Hopefully it will be my best every!

Here’s wishing you the best too!