BEACH NOTES ... December 29, 2010 ... Ocean City, New Jersey

ODDS & ENDS ... to be started or completed at the end of the year, or the beginning of the next one ... from Ocean City, New Jersey

So I'm wrapping up the last five pages of my journal for the 2010 calendar year.  I'll do just a bit of a summary for future reference and stack it with my other ones.  I've been doing this since 2005 on a regular basis ... had tried off and on for many years on a scattered way.  But for the past 6 years, it is a regular type of entry (not every day ... but quite detailed) coverage of my thoughts, activities, ideas, books read, films watched, etc.

And it makes it quite easy for my wife, Leslie, to buy me a meaningful holiday gift each year ... a 6x8 or 9 inch leather bound journal (usually handles the job, but on two of the years I had to get a second journal).

So for the next few days I will jot down some recommended books to read for 2011, films to see in 2011, and some goals and resolutions for the coming 2011 year.  All of these will be in the 2010 journal which I usually keep close to the 2011 one for the first month of the new year.  I'm not as organized as this sounds ... but maybe my writing is. 

I also try to establish just a few specific goals for the coming year in my real estate field as well.  I just read a USA TODAY page on  "New year's resolutions:  always an uphill climb ... Bu you'll get to the top through slow and steady progress (December 28,2010).  The article goes on to give some advice ... set realistic and attainable goals, develop a specific action plan, and go public with your resolution (important) plus track your progress, reward your success, and build in the right behavior to counter problems. 

Smoking, exercise, and finance are generally the topics most people work on for their resolutions.  But for me due to my six month ago health issue, exercise is now a major part of my life and weight loss is a goal achieved.  I never smoked so that is no issue.  And we all have financial issues to resolve ... but nothing at a critical point.  So I will work on some personal ones and organizational ones for myself plus some work-related ones to help me in my stay-at-home-office and my new partnership plus a couple of major topics that I want to get started in the new year.  I've yet to write these into a plan.  That's the next few days.

Of a general nature for the long haul, I want to learn more about social media and technology, do a better job on the finished product with my newsletter (i.e. pictures, etc ... the writing is the easy part for me), and develop a couple of action plans for the coming year.  My new Kindle is an example ... after reading the guidelines section, I'm amazed at it s potential for the real estate field ... storing pdf files, maintaining documents, etc.  I can see why some people might purchase more than one Kindle for different types of tasks.                   dap