by Jamie Belnap

STAFF WRITER

Apparently January is the best month for planning self-improvement tactics. At least someone thought so when they instigated the idea of creating lists of resolutions for the new year.

Whoever it was must have lived along the glittering shores of some island oasis where the skies are always bright blue and incapable of darkening a person's mood, bringing on seasonal depression or basically turning optimists into pessimists. That sunny individual's initial list must have been short and easy enough to accomplish within a one-year span, which inspired another stab at a new list the following year. And so a tradition began.

Unfortunately, our mountain home only boasts resolution-inspiring conditions during July on the shores of the Great Salt Lake -- supposing, of course, the mosquitos don't eat you first. So instead we scribble down a list of possible life improvements from beneath a colorful afghan while wearing wool socks and feeling the need to even don some gloves to keep fingertips at room temperature.

January can cause us to feel the need for major improvement, which causes our lists to be consistently longer than the previous year and largely unrealistic. I have stopped creating yearly lists for this reason alone. Thinking of a concrete, bulleted sublist of ways I can accomplish a particular goal during such a slow-moving, dark month is near impossible.

There's no obvious solution to the winter weather -- which could possibly take a turn for the worse should the highly-publicized Stockton Bar continued to be carved away -- but there has got to be some sort of solution to the inconsistencies of New Year's resolutions.

Although never written down, my list for years past always contained the same basic ideas: work out more often, stop procrastinating, be able to cook like my mom and do something about the many started-but-never-finished projects building up in my closet. Each year I probably moved a couple of steps in the right direction but never completely accomplished my sky-high goals.

Maybe the reason I am never able to put a little red check next to anything on my list stems from previous unaccomplished lists. They're like the box of newspaper in the garage that I'm always meaning to recycle, but instead keeps building higher and higher. This leaning tower of lists somehow cumbers my ability to further the quest to find the best me there is.

Perhaps some good can come from new year's resolutions, but I'm on the hunt for an alternative way to feel accomplished and find progression in a single year.

I'll get back to you on my progress in July.

jamieb@tooeletranscript.com