After some thought and consideration, I think I have come up with my New Years Resolutions.

Last year, I had the following resolutions:

  1. Work on being happy. Be a happier person.
  2. To coincide with that, actually write people off that shouldn’t be in my life anymore.
  3. Increase my net worth by at least $22,000.
  4. Read more. Finish at least one book a month.
  5. Try not to get bent out of shape when things don’t go exactly according to plan.

I do believe that by the end of the year I was a happier person and I certainly wrote people off that shouldn’t be in my life so I did hit two of my resolutions.

2008 was a very difficult year as far as the global economy was concerned and my 401k, IRA and stocks took a beating. I haven’t actually looked to see what they are all at lately but I know that I did not see the gains that I was hoping for. However, I did work in a very positive manner on reducing my debt and were it not for having to purchase a car in July, my savings would be in great shape. I think that all in all, this was a very lofty goal and I will modify it for the next year.

I did not finish 12 books this year, however I believe that I finished at least 7 and am currently 1/3 of the way through Atlas Shrugged. This is a good number and it definitely saw me reading more than I have in the past couple of years. I plan on continuing with this resolution and want to read even more this year.

Finally, I think that I did a much better job with not getting all bent out of shape when things didn’t go according to my plan. I think that I have to continue to trust that there are some things that I simply can not control and to just roll with these situations.

With that being said, here are my thoughts for 2009:

  1. Read more. Broaden my literary interests.
  2. Focus on completing the tasks that I start. Avoid putting off projects and be determined to find solutions to my problems.
  3. Further increase my net worth by reducing bad debt and increasing my savings.
  4. Live more in the moment. Avoid trying to plan every aspect of my life and take each day and moment more as they come.
  5. Explore my spirituality.