10 New Year's Resolutions for Journalists in 2012

10. Run at least 10 blogs.

9. Make friends with at least two city employees because if anything bad happens and you write about it, even though it's your job, someone is going to hate you.

8. Tweet more than anyone else.

7. Stop investing in pencils. Let's be real, no one actually writes anymore.

6. Get the most page views, no matter what desperate acts you must partake in to do so.

5. Only work 60 hours per week for that 40 hour per week pay. Unrealistic, I know. But we can make goals.

4. Drink more. Hey, don't judge. It cheers us up after the brutal things we deal with all week long.

3. Remember that every insult, rude remark and threat regarding a story must be taken as a compliment because somebody read your story. (If it's not regarding a story, my resolution suggestion for you is to run and hide).

2. Keep the psycho who calls anonymously every other night to tell you what he thinks of your stories as far away as possible. Granted that's difficult when your work address is published everywhere. Scratch this resolution, let's change it to: get as fit as possible so you can run away if the anonymous psycho finds you.

1. Remember that there actually are a few people out there who appreciate your writing - well, most of it. They still really hate some of it.

Happy New Year, my fellow journalists!

“I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.”
– Tom Stoppard

I'm out and about in communities constantly for my job. If I'm not out and about I'm talking to people on Facebook, Twitter, through email and phone for stories. The topic this week that everyone has brought up is, of course, new year's resolutions.

Every year I hear about the same resolutions over and over and over and over and over.

So, here it is, the list of the five most overplayed new year's resolutions.

5. Save money / spend less money
I'll admit, this is mainly a thing I hear from females. They want to stop shopping as much or end weekly manicures to save the money. Let's face it, we all go out on pay day and blow our money, hoping we leave enough to pay the bills. That isn't going to chance for the majority of people in 2012.

4. Get organized
Most people aren't organized to the point they'd like to be. I've heard, "Well, next year I'll keep track of my bills better," and "next year I'm going to stick to a schedule" so many times I stopped counting. Organization is someone is rare and those of us who organize their life do it to far. I made a resolution once to be less organized. It doesn't happen. We are who we are, whether we're overly organized or chaotically cluttered.

3. Diet
While this is an all-year-round dilemma, people become entranced in the idea that beginning a diet on new year will mean they will stick to it. I mean really, do you someone that has followed through completely?

2. Stop smoking 
I've never smoked so I can't touch on how addicting it is, I do know however that some people can't get away from it no matter how hard they try. It actually saddens me that this had to be on my list because of the health issues, but in reality it is a resolution that people make and rarely follow through with.

1. Exercise
The most overplayed new year resolution is without a doubt starting to exercise. I worked at a gym for six years selling memberships and the amount of people who buy memberships at the start of the year was astonishing. We would tell people that through January the gym is always busy, but come mid-February people stop working out and drop the resolution. That's exactly how it was. They would hold strong through January then lose it.


If any of these are your resolutions I hope that this motivates you to focus more on your plan and keep it going! If you have a different resolution leave your comment below and let's see which ones I missed!