Here’s a compilation of my facebook statuses from 2007:

Shawn is using the present continuous tense again. Facebook is so limiting.
Shawn is out of ideas for facebook statuses.
Shawn is SNOW DAY!!!
Shawn is partly cloudy.
Shawn is FUCK ESSAYS.
Shawn is super duper serial.
Shawn is finding a desire to reconnect with nature.
Shawn is badly grammers. wof,.
Shawn is going to be a moderator at the Iraq War Panel. Please come and bring all your friends.
Shawn is wearing one sock.
Shawn is the measure of all things.
Shawn is fucking fucked. Fuck.
Shawn is tickled by redundancy tickled by redundancy.
Shawn is not a dirty liar. Unlike Kant.
Shawn is going to follow this sentence with a really short one. Or not.
Shawn is desperately trying to live in a world of reality.
Shawn is updating his comic four times a week again. Yes.
Shawn is starting to get bored. There is only so much Law & Order one can take.
Shawn is making funny faces in the mirror.
Shawn is updating his status.
Shawn is good people.
Shawn is going to Vegas on Saturday. You will not be missed. Just kidding.
Shawn is in Baltimore. *sigh*.
Shawn is not going to live a boring life.
Shawn is ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone.
Shawn is a medical mystery.
Shawn is OMG LT U failed me.
Shawn is not contagious. Hooray!
Shawn is a super fighting robot.
Shawn is upset over upsets.
Shawn is finally fini– oh wait, there’s still one more essay to do.
Shawn is far too busy, being delicious.
Shawn is bored again, after a fantastic weekend.
Shawn is not in a hurry.
Shawn is hiding his girl scout cookies. No, you can’t have some.
Shawn is Scott Baio-wulf.
Shawn is a weevil in a captain’s biscuit.
Shawn is cavorting in the snow.
Shawn is staying fresh, staying cool… with Mentos fresh and full of life!
Shawn is home, bitches!
Shawn will now be using different tenses.
Shawn is no longer Wii-less.

It’s strange that I’ve seen for many years now a lack of boldness in my character. At least, I’ve seen that as a a weakness and wished to change it.

In 2005, my New Year’s resolution was “seize the day.” In 2006, one of my resolutions was “Every move is a killing move.” In 2007, my resolutions were 1) Get it done 2) Be impetuous, and 3) Live in the present. I notice a common thread through all of them: A desire to boldly do things.

But now, finally, I see a different weakness of mine that has prevented me from living fully: a lack of purpose. Bold actions mean nothing without a sense of purpose behind them. Like I wrote in my weblog the other day, “If you don’t have a strategy, you’re just moving your pieces around and you’re going to lose.” Actions should be informed by your goals. Tactics should be informed by strategy. Boldness isn’t enough. I’m reminded of the Law of Navigation from John C. Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. You need vision in order to steer.

On October 18, 2007, I have a short weblog entry entitled “Telos,” where I stated that the first step to getting my life back on track, from releasing myself from feeling overwhelmed, was to set my goals. The day before, I thought the first step was eliminating my inefficient work habits. Boy am I glad I caught myself. Otherwise, eliminating inefficiency could’ve been my New Year’s resolution for 2008, and I would be back at square one. The word “telos,” though, no longer resonates with me. “Purpose” does. I will christen 2008 as the Year of Purpose. 2008 will be dedicated to the importance of goals and strategy.

So, what are my resolutions? I want my resolution to be: Have a goal in mind. Then, I need to fill out everything under it, like preparation and planning to the end. But the goal is step 1. I don’t want my goals to be my specific resolutions. I want my resolution to be to have goals in the first place. I want to accomplish things this year.

Secondly, I want a resolution to be “Keep reading.” I would not have learned the lessons I’ve learned this year if I didn’t read. Reading “Fiasco” gave me the distinction between tactics and strategy. Reading about chess made me really feel the importance of strategy. Books teach me, and then they reinforce the most important lessons about life. “Keep reading” is a reminder to keep learning and to keep improving. I want to read at least 50 books this year, including the ones I read for class.

The last thing is not a resolution, but a reminder: Brick by brick. It’s an image I want to keep in mind as I go about achieving my goals. Rome wasn’t built in a day. I must be willing to work brick by brick, and not think that I can take shortcuts and get everything done at once. I must be willing to do the small things that are necessary to my goals.

I’ve tended to think that my old resolutions were failures at the end of the year. But no aphorism can encompass all of life’s lessons. I recently read “Destruction and Creation” by John R. Boyd. No philosophy is complete, or all-encompassing. It is imperative to destroy old paradigms and create new ones. New insights lie outside old systems of thought. Our old systems of thought naturally increase in entropy; disorder increases and we must reject old systems before they become nonsensical. The decay of my resolutions’ value is natural. I must go beyond the resolutions and encompess them in a new philosophy, or I will go nowhere. So, out with the old and in with the new.

Finally, I believe that one year is too long to hold on to the types of resolutions I make. I’ll see you all in six months with an evalution and new resolutions.

For now, welcome 2008. I have great hope that I will accomplish great things.