Pre New Year's Resolution

First, I need to make note of a tiny personal thrill. I see by the count on the bottom of my blog that I've surpassed 10,000 visits to this site. I know this number means nothing in the scheme of blogging, but if you would have asked me last January when I started this whole thing if I ever could have imagined 10,000 hits within a year, I'd have never believed it. Amazing!

Really, when I see that I'm only one month shy of my blogging anniversary, I can't believe it's been a whole year that I've been doing this. What is cool (in my tiny world where I take all that I can get) is seeing an entire twelve months' worth of archive. It's proof for me that slow and steady wins the race. Just a small amount every day (or most every day) creates substance.

To which, last night I announced to my husband that 2006 is going to be the Year of Finishing Things. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that my inability to finish a writing project is just a symptom of my over all disability in finishing anything. I have more crafty-type projects in some stage of completion it's not even funny. I have stuff I've aquired with the intention of doing, but haven't even begun. And we all know about the TBR shelf that is threatening to collapse under the weight of all the books it contains.

It's early to make New Year's Resolutions, and this really isn't a resolution per se, but rather a commitment to finishing. I have this feeling that if I focus on getting things completely done, that annoying hanging over my head sensation that follows me about like a cloud might go away. If I can find a way to get rid of the thoughts that there is always something else I should be or could be doing, maybe I'll find some peace.

I'm reminded of when I graduated from college, and that final dawning that never again would I have to study for anything (unless I went to grad school, but I didn't). Never again would I have to feel bad about blowing off school work to have a good time when I knew there was always reading to be done or notes to be gone over or libraries to be haunting. What a sense of freedom.

I'd like to find that sense of freedom from everything else in my life. Even the stuff that is supposed to be fun causes a certain level of stress. And what's the point of that?

I guess I've hit that point where I'm ready to simplify my life down to it's barest, then rebuild with only the most important elements. Having this mini epiphany a full two weeks before New Years gives me a headstart.

Besides, this plan beats my other option. 2006 - The Year I Finally Lose That Excess Baby Weight.