another year again, time to move the goal posts

Let the invention begin, hopefully "existence [really does] proceed essence."

It is customary at the beginning of each year to set goals that will last as a target in your brain for anywhere up to an astonishingly prolonged period of 2 weeks. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I have a clear and present record of last years unrealistic designs for awesomeness...

Write and publish stories: epic fail

Self explanatory. It never happened.

Train to fight: meh (I hate that word, but it fits)

What began as an innocent foray into the brutal world of face pummeling ended in my becoming an alcoholic. Actually, causation was not a statistically significant factor in the relationship between the former and latter. But the latter did derail the former.

Be more social: win (just barely)

All the odds were stacked in my favour on this one. The act of greeting 3 people would out do the previous years total. In this area of life excess alcohol actually helped. Yeah for me!

Begin altruistic endeavors: fail

When you're walking the tight rope that is the poverty line yourself, does it make sense to try and save your fellows if it means you lose your balance along the way? It would have been nice to at least give it go. That's what the future's for, I guess, nursing away your regrets.

Guess what? I didn't make nearly as much progress as I was hoping. Guess what again? My goals are exactly the same this year, with minor modifications. Just by telling the internet this I've lowered my chances of achieving them.

In fact beyond violating the "do and don't say" rule of psychology I have also fallen victim to the classic dysfunction that manifests itself at this time every year: Self-Control Hubris. Turns out that people grossly overestimate their ability to change. The human race has designed ways to overcome the earth's gravitational pull, we can manipulate the building blocks of matter to explosive affect, but getting fat-ass Johnny up off his lazy fat ass remains one of the most daunting challenges known to wo/man. We've all got a little, sometimes a lot, of fast-ass Johnny in us.

Guess what again again? I don't care. Resistance (i.e. self sabotage) will not defeat me. Posturing doesn't count for much, especially on the internet. I don't care. I'm going to win. The goal posts stay. Time for one last march to glory. 'Til next year comes round again. Now go and tell that...