Don't "Resolutionize" - Rather REVOLUTIONIZE!

The new year is rife with pundits' expositions on their New Year's resolutions. Personally, there's only so many times I can tell myself (and anyone else interested enough to ask) that I'm going to exercise more and lose weight, or stop drinking "Mountain Dew", or that I'm going to finally take the dive and learn how to play that bass guitar. I"ve only ever been successful ONCE in living up to a New Year's Resolution: That was to quit smoking, and even then it took eight years to accomplish.

Therefore, rather than vow to follow some redundant "resolutions", I vow, instead, to engage in "revolutions" this year!

How will accomplish this Sisyphean task?

1. Step outside my comfort zone and do something that is a bit risque - at least for me. Take the meaning of this as you will, but for me it means being a little less calculating in things. A minor example would be in my blogging: Rather than plan out a post for a week or so, do more "stream-of-consciousness" stuff. Maybe add video or audio. Maybe offer my services to a third party and be a guest blogger on a site like the WHIR.

2. Be more opinionated. Believe it or not I've been criticized for having an opinion on things but not making that opinion heard. Therefore, I need to have more conversations with leadership, more calls or emails - don't sit on the "next great idea", actually discuss it with someone. And when I say "leadership", I'm talking Newtek leadership: Barry, C.J., et. al. That also means fix more broken windows in our forums :).

3. Don't wait - participate. Sort of hand-in-hand with the first two, but I need to get more involved outside of the NTS environment: post in forums, hit a local users group or four, maybe a dreaded Better Business Bureau monthly "technology leadership" meeting. Then again, maybe it's as simple as striking up a friendship with someone whose blog I read, or who I follow on Twitter.

4. Grow and improve - take a class or attend a seminar on something odd: origami, eastern religion (DISCLAIMER: I do not mean eastern religion itself is odd, but me taking a class on it would be), ballroom dancing. Again, trying to stick with a "revolutionary" theme, so why stop and learning more about writing, or technology, or anything else that surrounds me on a day-to-day basis? Expand horizons, self improve, carpe diem, that sort of thing.

5. Don't just live - actually exist! This goes for everything, both personally and professionally. In the immortal words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: "Some may never live, but the crazy never die."

Okay, so I'm no Che, but for me those are fairly lofty goals as we gently slide into a new year. Hey, this is the era of Change:  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!