My New Year's "Check List"

I am not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions.  They are often a punchline in a lame joke about how soon you are going to break them. I know myself pretty well, and I KNOW I will not last with any resolution I make at the beginning of the year, so I don't set myself up for failure.

I have been thinking  long and hard about how the New Year is a great time to have a fresh start, and make positive changes in your life.  I wanted to find a way of making those changes, without the disappointment of screwing up a resolution.

What if there was a way to score myself on how well I am doing ? That way it wouldn't be all or nothing, pass or fail.  Finally, I decided to make a list of 10 things I can do to  improve myself in some way. Then I would give myself a score from 1 to 10 based on how many of those things I accomplished each week. If I did all 10 that would be an awesome week, and if I only managed 3 or 4, it would be a crappy week. 

The next challenge was to come up with a list of 10 things to do. There are a lot of things I need to work on, and it was hard to decide which ones were important. I didn't want to do all of the usual things (exercise, eat right, etc.) Those are important, and many of them will be on the list, but there are other things that I should do more often, but I am too lazy or unmotivated to do frequently enough. I wanted to put those things on the list too, to hold myself accountable.

To some people it may not look like a very challenging list. You may do all of those things every day and even more, but this is my list based on where I am now. Each item will be an improvement on what I am currently doing. I want the list to evolve over time, I will expand how often I do things, or even add new and more challenging things as I succeed with the current list.

So here is the list;

1) Weigh myself at least 4 times a week
2) Exercise at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes
3) Spend quality Daddy / Daughter time with Bailey
4) Shave at least 4 times a week
5) Drink no more than 3 sodas a week
6) Eat no more than 2 fast food meals a week
7) Floss at least 4 times a week
8) Take all my medication each day (at the correct time !)
9) Check my Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar 5 days a week
10) Do at least  4 household chores each week (dishes, laundry, etc.)

That is my list. Each week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday. My goal is to post my weekly score every Sunday on the Blog, Twitter and on Facebook.

Wish me luck !! I welcome any encouragement and feedback about my list.