Not Resolutions...Guidelines...

Good news! The Mayans didn't kill us. What a relief. I must say, I was so concerned. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas / Kwanzaa / Hanukkah / whatever it is you choose to celebrate around this time of year. We're about to start a new year, though. It's the last day of 2012, and I must say this year has been rather interesting. There have been some good times, there have been some great times, and I've had some of the best memories come out of this year. Despite the fact that 2012 isn't ending quite how I wanted it to, I'm going to take it as a challenge.

Last January I posted the things I wanted to change in my life. They were as follows: 

- I want to work on being a nicer person. It's safe to stay I still have a lot of work to do. 

- Eat healthier. Uhhhhhh... we'll skip that one. #TeenageBoyProblems

- Start exercising. I actually stuck to this one for a while. Going to the gym was some of the most fun I've ever had.

- Post on here more. Check.

- Live life for me. Yeah... that's not happening anytime soon. Oh well.

- Volunteer more. I went on a mission trip over the summer that was full of volunteer opportunities. I've also volunteered a lot this year with StuCo. It's fun and gratifying. 

- Spend more time with friends. In the long run that may have been more hurtful than helpful in some instances. 

- Start taking school seriously. If you can count taking easier classes for your senior year to boost your GPA as taking school seriously... then mission accomplished!

- Censoring myself. Well... I'm not a miracle worker. So... 

I'm not sure how smart it was for me to set up so many resolutions at once. Scratch that. It was really dumb of me to set myself so many resolutions at one time, because I managed to stick to like... three. 

So I've decided to try a new approach. Instead of setting a resolution I've decided to institute guidelines for me. Basic rules that I am going to live my life by in order to well... not f*** stuff up. 

So here they are. My guidelines.

1. Think before I react. Shit undeniably happens. Issac Newton said it best in his Law's of Motion when he claimed that "every action has an equal and opposite reaction." I must admit I haven't been abiding by that law very much. It's been more like "for every action Tyler will have available a reaction that is over the top and over dramatic." Yes yes, I know. My bad. I want to work on it though. You see, at first I didn't care if I upset someone with my dramatic tendencies because typically the people I upset were people that I really didn't give two shits about. I stepped over that boundary too, though. My diva-ness has started to take a toll on a relationship that I and another have put a lot of time and effort into... again. It's a miracle that they've put up with me for this long, and I'm praying that things can go back to the way they were. 

2. The rule of Karma. It's pretty simple. I should not dish out crap and not expect people to not throw crap right back in my face. I figure a three-fold system would apply nicely here. Whatever I do is going to come back to me three-fold. Sometimes it's better to just hold your tongue... or so I've heard. 

So there they are. My New Years guidelines that hopefully will last me more than a year. Feel free to remind me of them whenever I seem to stray from the path that I have created for myself. 

Now that I think about it, though, I don't like the idea of New Years Guidelines. Why wait until the new year to start applying them to my life. Why not start...

... now?