I’m not a huge believer in New Year’s
Resolutions. Mostly their impact on my life comes from all the people who show
up at the gym in January because they resolved that this is the year they are going to get in shape. So, for a while
the rest of us have a longer wait to use machines. Of course, it’s generally not the year, and the resolved go away
by February.
I made some general resolutions a few
years back that have served me well and I continue to work toward those goals –
read more, continue to work out, pursue writing, and somewhere along the line I
added an effort to improve my diet. The last one has essentially equated to
drinking more water, mostly because my diet isn’t over-the-top healthy but it’s
really not that bad either.
Anyway, those core resolutions seem to
be just about all I need. They’re solid, realistic ambitions that don’t come
with success or failure. They’re not about the immediate result. If I slack
off, I just have to hit a point where I realize it and “get back on the horse.”
But not much has changed in my life in the last few years, at least not in the
ways I wanted, and I fell short of a couple specific goals in 2012 that I
wanted to accomplish. So, aside from continuing the efforts mentioned above, I
have some 2013-specific resolutions:
· Publish I’m Not Here to Inspire You, my book of essays on experiences
living with a disability. I spent a
lot of time trying to get it published this year, and received some good
feedback from a couple of trusted sources that I hope will lead to having it
out in the new year.
· Finish writing the novel I’ve
been writing on-and-off for a couple years tentatively titled No One to Trust. I’ve been making it
more and more of a priority, but came up short of finishing a rough draft this
year. Accomplishing this goal may include less or no more blogging and
tweeting. It just eats up too much of my time and energy for writing and doesn’t
accomplish enough if anything. I also want to make my blogging, tweeting, and other
social media efforts, more directly about promoting my writing. Coupled with the
fact that I’ve already given up regular sports blogging, making the “Page 2”
reference outdated, I may be making some adjustments to my blogs and Twitter
accounts.
· Stop wasting time on
Facebook. It’s a good idea that has gone horribly wrong. Even my thought (read:
my excuse to keep using the site after swearing it off in the past) that it
could be useful as a news aggregator didn’t hold up. Also, engaging commenters
on links to blog posts has generally provided more evidence that people feel
empowered by the lack of actual human interaction on Facebook to say obnoxious
and idiotic things often without even reading what I’ve written. Political
debates on the site never lead to worthwhile discussion and are just another
waste of time and energy. As I mentioned I will still use “social media,”
including Facebook, to promote my writing and hopefully my book. I just need to
stop engaging in nonsense and reading the 10 meaningful, life-changing sayings
that people have liked or shared on a given day. And I don’t need to know the intimate
details of the life of people I went to high school with and barely knew back
then. And I’m sure they don’t need to know details about me. This is not about
being anti-social. I’ve changed my settings on Facebook to receive actual messages
from friends via e-mail. (Remember e-mail? Where people communicate directly to
each other?)
· Expand my boundaries on the
trike. I did this a little bit last year and, due to the width of my bike, doing
it as much as I’d like is not always in my control. However, there were at
least a couple of opportunities that were
under my control that I failed to take advantage of in 2012. This resolution
includes becoming a stronger cyclist, and possibly doing the MS Ride 2013.
· Create a regular “pickup game” of wheelchair hockey once
a week or once a month to have some fun, get a little exercise, and just have
another activity to enjoy. Years ago I
stated another goal of creating a rec center geared toward people with
disabilities. It was always intended as a long-term goal and remains just that.
I figure I will need to have a historic run in Vegas some day or make the
best-seller list for it happen. As an interim goal or resolution with some of
the same ideals in mind, I’ve been asking around if anyone would be
interested in playing manual wheelchair hockey. If I can get a few people
interested, I hope to ask the Y or maybe a local college if they could help us
out with space to play. Obviously, considering the realities of living with a
disability, it will have to be more organized than a true pickup game, but I
want it to be a casual, fun thing to do without making it a major commitment
for people to show up every game. I’ve been aware of the Philadelphia PowerPlay
for some time, but that seems to be strictly for power chair users. I’m also
aware of the sled hockey team of the Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports
program, but I don’t have the upper body control to play on that level. I was
thinking of something for those of us who fall in the middle of those ability
ranges.
Five steps to a better me? Worth a
shot.
