2011 NYR’s

It’s that time of year again – time for good, old, well-meaning New Year’s resolutions. Since I actually recorded them last year, I thought I’d go back and see how I fared, before setting new ones.

1. Get in shape/ lose weight/ achieve goal weight etc, etc
Failed.
I think it’s fair to say that, at seven and a half months pregnant, I failed miserably on this one. It’s almost comforting, though, because a list of NYR’s just wouldn’t feel complete if it didn’t begin with “lose weight”. And now I can confidently start my 2011 list with this goal.

2. Start a business
Succeeded.
After 17 months of research and development (and lots of sabbatical), my business started trading in October 2010. I would be punting it shamelessly on this blog, but I do want my clients to think I’m a professional and not a raving lunatic, so you, dear readers, will be spared from business advertising on this platform.

3. Master my Mac
Succeeded.
We are joined at the hip. I think I’ll take that as an indication of success.

4. Become fluent-ish in Italian
Failed.
Failed spectacularly and hopelessly at this goal. Did not even attempt to contact the Dante Aligheri institute to sign up for day-time classes with other desperate housewives. However, part of the “improve-my-Italian” aim consisted of no longer attempting to learn Spanish. Trips to Buenos Aires and Barcelona in 2010 saw me launching forth in a unique blend of Spantalian which was perfectly comprehensible to me (although I couldn’t always identify which words were Spanish and which were Italian). The downside was that my Spantalian was perfectly incomprehensible to the baffled locals. The result is that I have decided to entirely abandon any attempts at improving my very dodgy Spanish in 2011 and to focus entirely on the language of pasta, spumante and Roberto Cavalli.

5. Develop sufficient skill (and confidence) to participate in social tennis
Failed.
I like to think that this failure is less the result of my improved skills on the court and more the result of the scary purple-haired grannies who dominate the social tennis scene at my local club. Whilst enjoying a leisurely Saturday afternoon tennis match with friends, we have been stopped mid-serve, practically frisked for our membership cards and routinely told to remove ourselves from the court we were playing on because it was “reserved for social tennis” – something we would apparently know if we bothered to keep up to date with the newsletter!!!

6. Read the paper – get a Business Day subscription
Failed.
Does watching E-News on the treadmill count at all?

7. Quit Coke Lite
Succeeded.
It’s been twelve, long, agonising months but I am proud to report that I haven’t touched the good stuff since January 2010.

This brings me to the consolidated list of NYR’s for 2011, complete with a selection of failures from 2010:

1. Lose weight
2. Become fluent-ish in Italian
3. Improve my tennis game and join some kind of regular match-play where the people aren’t scary
4. Read the paper – get a Business Day subscription
5. Grow my business
6. Start free-lance writing
7. Wean myself off my salt addiction
8. Stop slouching and start using my stomach muscles to sit/ stand up straight
9. Survive my first year of motherhood

Perhaps I’ll read this in a year and feel proud to have simply achieved no. 8, but for now I’m happy to bask in blissful ignorance at start out believing that I at least have a hope of achieving all eight goals.

The bonus is that I can only start my diet after the little Princess arrives in March so between now and then I’m going to see how much cheese and chocolate it’s humanly possible to consume…




1 comment

  1. Realistically, the only goal you need to have is to survive the first year of motherhood.  The one day when you feel 'Hey I am doing this and its not so bad' will far exceed any feeling you might get from mastering social tennis or losing weight.  As for reading the newspaper, I think that should be number 500 on your list.  Just as long as you keep up with the current events – listen to SAFM or watch E-news channel while breastfeed or formula feeding and that will be sufficient.