Pla(n)tonic

The thing about new year resolutions is that they are hard to keep, harder to forget and often broken within few hours of having made them anyways.

So this year, I;m making a wish-list.

Not a resolution ...(what does that mean anyways) ..

A wish list of all the things that I wish will happen .. and more importantly a wish list of all the things I hope I can make happen in 2009.

And I decided to take a leaf from my B school books and actually mention doable action items and not state broad vague goals like "Improve health" ... and set SMART goals...

(Specific Mesurable Achievable Realistic Timely .....Lol !!! .. cant believe I am actually stating how nerdy I am .. oh well !)

And this year, I've decided to be brave and put them down in ink ..

Some of the points on this list arise from my day to day struggles with being less clumsy and others are what I say I'll keep doing ..but never do ..

So by this time next year, we will know where the scale tilts.

So here is my wishlist for 2009 :

1. Make a trip to Morocoo and drink coffee with FL

2. Lose 5 kgs ..(not brave enough to disclose a number..just typing this was hard enough..and not sure if its SMART either .. )

3. Eat green leafy vegetables 2 times a week

4. Go swimming once a week

5. Visit the Golden Temple

6. Read one book written by a native author from each country that I have a close friend from

(Nigeria, Columbia, Mexico, Morocco, US, India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Malaysia )

Books identified so far are

"Love in the time of cholera " : Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"The famished road" : Ben Okri

"Like water for chocolate" : Laura Esquivel

7. Fill the gas tank in my car before it reaches "E" to avoid panic attacks

8. Learn to parallel park like JD ..(okay ..had to state it .. have NEVER seen anyone do a better job at parallel parking .... too bad I cant go all the way to Tampa to learn .. I would ..if I could..)

9. Find a NGO to volunteer on a weekly basis with

10. Write one letter each month and acutually post it ..

11. Learn the alphabet in sign language

12. Learn to give insulin injections to my grandmom

13. Drink 5 glasses of water each day

14. Finally go on my much planned and has not happened trip to Prague

15. Finish reading "We are like this only"

16. Restrict eating fast food to weekends alone

17. Not kill plants after getting them home ..and actually manage to grow something instead of hara kiri herbs dying in the sun due to my negligence

18. Find a job that I really like

19. Go to the gym at least 4 times a week

20. Try and do all the above mentioned 19 things

There - the typing part wasnt hard.

The "doing" is going to be the cause of my undoing in 2009.

Like they say .. Dont be afraid of making plans for when you are scared it means you have something to lose and when you make plans it means that you have something to look forward to.

Damn right I do ;)