A RESOLUTION to Finalize My Office Loft Setup by April 30, 2006

WHEREAS my townhouse has a sitting room upstairs outside the master bedroom that sits in a loft-like space, overlooking the living room and dining nook downstairs, and

WHEREAS I have appropriated this space for my office, and

WHEREAS this space is painted a nice, pale pink, as the previous homeowners had used this space as a nursery for their daughter, and

WHEREAS I’m okay with pink, but this is a man’s office, and

WHEREAS I spend a majority of my waking hours spent at home in the loft space, and

WHEREAS I have a half-finished office suite, and

WHEREAS I have no filling space to speak of, and

WHEREAS I have other uses in mind for the large piece of maple butcher block that presently serves as the platform for the desk,

THEREFORE, Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. A new wall color be selected for the loft area no later than 15 Feb 2006.
2. An investigation as to the feasibility of removing the amateur-installed chair railing be completed no later than 20 Mar 2006.
3. A new desk for the office be selected no later than 5 Apr 2006.
4. Painting of the loft area be completed no later than 16 Apr 2006.
5. The desk in item 3 above be procured and installed no later than 20 Apr 2006.
6. A suitable filing cabinet system be selected and procured no later than 30 Apr 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 May 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the fifth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Hooligan, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Launch SandraMcCracken.org by 31 March 2006

WHEREAS Sandra McCracken’s music absolutely, utterly rocks my socks off, and

WHEREAS few people have ever heard of Sandra McCracken, much less have heard her music, and

WHEREAS my experience with [caedmonscall.net] and [derekwebb.net] has given me the courage to strike out in this direction, and

WHEREAS I have a cadre of folks willing to help me with the necessary work in putting together a wonderful information storehouse about Sandra McCracken’s music, thereby fomenting the development of a community of rabid Sandra McCracken fans, and

WHEREAS I love Sandra to pieces and really want to bring her music to a larger audience,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. I will launch the Song Vault, News and Reviews Log, and Links pieces of SandraMcCracken.org no later than 31 Mar 2006.
2. I will hound Sandra endlessly to let me interview her and have her share her thoughts on music and life in audio form for SandraMcCracken.org.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Apr 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the fourth day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Crankcase, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to File My 2005 Income Taxes by February 28, 2006

WHEREAS I am a last-minute income tax filer, often filing on 15 Apr, and

WHEREAS I bought a house in 2005, which will supply me with more tax deductions than I have previously had, and

WHEREAS I feel fairly confident that I can manage filing my 2005 taxes on my own, provided I actually start on time, and

WHEREAS my employer routinely waits until 31 Jan to send out their W-2 forms,

THEREFORE, Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. I will attempt to file my 2005 Federal income taxes by 20 Feb 2006.
2. If my attempt to file on my own is unsuccessful, I will seek a capable tax preparer by 28 Feb 2006 and turn over my documents to them.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Mar 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the third day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Goofball, presiding.

A RESOLUTION to Bring Greater Fiscal Tracking to the Life of Geof F. Morris

WHEREAS I spent a large part of 2005 looking to log and track a lot of the goings-on in my life, learning quite a few good techniques for doing so along the way, and

WHEREAS I sometimes find myself looking at my bank statement and saying, “What the f***?”, and

WHEREAS I am at a point in life where greater financial responsibility is certainly a good idea, and

WHEREAS greater knowledge of my cash flow will undoubtedly correlate into better financial decision-making, as personal experience of short-term monitoring of my cash flow has achieved a high degree of solid, conscientious spending decisions,

THEREFORE Let it be hereby resolved by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com that:

1. Financial tracking software be procured for my home computer as well as my Treo handheld no later than 15 Jan 2006.
2. Aforementioned software shall be learned and implemented no later than 20 Jan 2006.
3. A basic budgetary outline [mortgage, house-related expenses, groceries, entertainment, vehicle maintenance, etc.] be completed no later than 31 Jan 2006.

THEREFORE Let it be further resolved that a report on the success of this effort be made no later than 2 Feb 2006.

RESOLVED on this, the second day of January, 2006, by the Board of Directors of GFMorris.com, Geof F. Morris, Resident Jackass, presiding.

I think that I, like most folks, vacillate on the idea of New Year’s resolutions. The argument for doing them is a good one: it’s probably better to live life with goals than it is to drift about aimlessly. The argument against them is as strong and simpler: most people fail miserably.

As 2005 waned, I thought about writing resolutions: what they would be, how many, etc. Eventually, I struck upon an idea that really made sense to me: the reason that most goals fail is because are either unrealistic or are too generic ["save more money", "be a better employee", etc.].

Thus, an idea was born, one with its roots in all the student government crap I’ve done the last decade: real, honest-to-God resolutions. “WHEREAS, it is the opinion of this body that …”—you get the idea. I love writing this stuff—ask anyone who’s ever been in student government with me!—and the experiences I’ve had the last three years have honed my planning skills quite well. [Unfortunately, my execution skills have lagged.]

Starting tomorrow and going through the 13th of January, I’ll post one resolution a day, to be acted upon by the end of each subsequent month. The easier resolutions are certainly front-loaded, but a couple of the ones at the end will require more than a late-fall push to make them happen.

Should be fun, at least for me.

Well, it’s the first day of 2005, and so most of us are trying to decide if we did anything stupid last night, or trying to figure out how to write the new date on our checks, or perhaps wondering what day it is—is it Saturday? Sunday? Monday? Do I have to work today?

Resolutions are a cliché, and the clichéd, “I’m-too-cool-for-school” response is to say, “I resolve not to make resolutions.” I think we all have that as an original thought at least once in our lives, and then we see some idiot say it on Dick Clark’s NYE broadcast and go, “Wow, how stupid does that sound?”

I have simply resolved not to make my resolutions public, and also to not wait for calendar years to roll around to come up with some resolve. I fervently feel that each day—and, if you want to get honest, each hour, each minute, and each second—is an opportunity for us to begin the long road of change.

Yes, change is a long road. Just ask Amy, whose spent the better part of a year working on making herself a more healthy person. If you go and read of her struggle for change—and yeah, people, that’s what it is—you’ll see that it’s been a long road, and there’s still plenty of road left. I’m proud and happy for my friend—not because she’s lost weight, but because she’s made conscious decisions to change things that she doesn’t like about her life and followed through with them. The improved health is a nice side benefit, but honestly, it’s not the most important thing she’s done in this process.

We all face processes like these in our lives. Some of us have great resolve; some of us, not so much. Some of that speaks to personality traits that we all have, but I think that it also speaks to self-awareness. I’m afraid that one reason that we ride the crutch of the New Year is because it is a collective, conscious reminder that Today Is A New Day. It’s all too easy to let the humdrum of life suck you down into the everydayness of it all—every year, you hear people say, “Wow, where did that year go?” You only make those pronouncements when you’ve been so off in the weeds that you’re not self-aware. We’re self-aware on New Year’s and our birthdays and maybe our anniversaries … but that’s about it.

How do you break that habit? You have to practice self-awareness. You have to get to know yourself. You have to try something, start a project, find a raison d’etre. But most of all, you have to stop, look, listen, and know where you are, who you are, and why you are.

I think that’s why David Allen’s Getting Things Done is so darn popular. It speaks of developing a system for self-awareness—it never says so in as many words, but that’s what you’re doing. “What have I agreed to do? What are my projects? What are my goals? What are my next actions?” Those all speak to self-awareness.

If I desire anything for myself, it is for more self-awareness. I think everything else I’d want for myself will spring from that.

So here’s to self-awareness: today, tomorrow, and everyday.