Now that we're in the new year I've got a bunch of stuff to do. Just like I did last week. These aren't resolutions, which are declarative statements with no determined strategy toward achieving them, such as "I want to lose fifteen pounds." But rather something along the lines of, "I want to start saving for a bike and start mapping out routes so when I buy one I'll actually have somewhere to go." From there the assertion can be made: "I'd like to lose 20 pounds." Because by then if you don't have a set strategy you'll definitely have a framework for one.

Saying, "In 2012 I plan to travel more with the family," when you might not travel at all is a promise you shouldn't make out loud because Lord forbid the wife or any of your kids hear it, they'll be standing there with their arms folded in December looking at you because you took them no where. Instead consider, "I need to set up a separate/savings account for travel and in order to travel by (date of your choosing) I need to put $x in it per week or month."

Thus you will quickly move from the fantasy of the New Year's resolution and into the reality of laid out plans to achieve goals. Mind you they don't have to be perfect and in the end they might look different than you envisioned but at least you're moving...forward.

I intend to do more and be more in 2012. 2011 was a runaway train wreck for most, including my own family. But while most were lamenting I was bucking the system, quietly looking for holes of opportunity in the midst of all the impossibility. Smiling when most days I wanted to scream and working each day seeking out opportunity in a wasteland just as Wall-E worked each day turning trash into treasure (yeah, I referenced a Disney movie. This is a dad blog, right?) I even poked holes of opportunity when and if necessary. As a result I'm now ready to put rubber to the road and put everyone in my rear view mirror who isn't moving forward with me.

But I am only human and I am a father of two kids. I'm juggling new career opportunities, a need to upgrade nearly every piece of technology I own and maintaining a marriage and trying to have a lifestyle all at the same time. In years past I was getting a whole lot of a little done. Now thanks to smartphone technology, great productivity apps such as Evernote (they are not paying me, but I just really like them a whole lot), file sharing and reminders I might be able to get things done and still enjoy life.

Here is what I'd like to do in 2012:

• Relearn Spanish
• Relearn Piano or learn a new instrument
• Gain a solid understanding of the teachings of the Bible
• Take my wife on a few weekend trips
• Take my daughter to Disney World
• Take my son on a college tour
• Become a paid speaker
• Lose close to 20 pounds (again) mostly through bike riding because my knees hurt when I run (an always have)
• Go to the doctor and the dentist (a freelancer's longtime dream)
• Host a few showings of my photography where I hope to sell some if not all the pieces
• Begin the novel that's been on my heart all my life
• Write a children's book

...to name a few.

But my new growing To Do List doesn't look anything close to the above list. Instead is a list of plays and strategies which will hopefully result or provide the means for me to accomplish the above.

What will your To Do List look like in 2012?

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Last week's insanity and one of the many reasons why I was absent on the blog...

For reasons that don't need to be discussed here I locked myself out of my home for the first time ever! Did I call the locksmith? No. Did I have the good sense to have a spare hidden somewhere? No. Did I make sure a neighbor had a key? No. But I did manage to enlist the help of neighbor, Olympic hurdler, Kim Batten, who suggests I borrow a ladder from someone.

I go from house to house until another neighbor answers and lends me his 12-foot ladder. I go to the back of my 3 story townhome hoping the windows on the back deck are unlocked - they aren't (good job family, seriously). My helper and 911-dialer Kim Batten holds the ladder steady a good five feet beneath the 1st floor deck. I look for a place to grab without getting a fistful of splinters and pull myself up onto the deck using only the deck slats. Then I'm trapped on the deck as everything is locked. But I see that my son's window is open. In a moment of crazed inspiration I instruct my assistant to hoist the ladder up to me. I decide to climb through the 3rd floor window. The only problem: the ladder doesn't reach but I am able to stretch from the top of the ladder (the part where you aren't supposed to stand) to pop the screen out. I drop the screen to the deck beneath me, say a quick prayer and jump to grab hold of the window ledge. Now hanging out of my sons window, legs dangling, more growling than breathing, I center myself, calm down and tell the gods I'm not dying today...

With nothing but my hands and arms I pull myself through my son's open window and pour myself into his room. I stand completely covered with dirt and dust, legs scratched to hell (I was wearing shorts) from dragging myself against the house and swollen as I don't know what from may have been the toughest real-world workout I've ever had in my life. Yeah, I'm one of those dudes who doesn't ask for directions when I'm lost either. Moral of the story: Have a set a spare keys at a neighbor's house (get to know your neighbors) and thank God I've been doing pull-ups for the past month at the gym.

Now everyone has keys to my home and as far as I'm concerned the pull-up is the exercise of the gods.

Bye Bye Backfat!

Photo Credit: United States Marine Corps Official Page

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and DAD: As Easy As A, B, C! (coming soon). For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

2011 is the year that I take it all back...every piece of me (if it's salvageable or if I want it), but more importantly every piece I've given away.

They say the devil is in the details and whether you believe such an entity exists or not I think most will agree that other than Acts of God, grand messes are made of many, many, many mistakes...a.k.a. details. And even still on the scientific level, Acts of God are often distilled by scientists into series of unfortunate events leading up to one big MESS!

When I was single I was a dude who liked a clean bedroom to come home to. Why? Because I did. Because it looked sexy when you had company. Because it looks sexy when you don't. Because since you're bed is typically the biggest piece of furniture in your bedroom having a messed up bed will make the rest of the room look like butt.

Everyone in my house doesn't agree with this. People in general don't agree with this. "Why make it up? It's only gonna get messed up when I get back in it." I've heard this over and over again. My son feels this way too but as the biggest piece of furniture in his room is his floor he's got bigger issues. We make sure our daughter's room is nice and clean because she's a girl and she's my baby. Why not treat myself to the same level of pampering. Who knows maybe it'll rub off on my son? Although I'm sure it won't. It didn't for me until I was in college.

In 2011 I've decided I'm going to have a made bed, EVERYDAY. On Sunday I pulled a fresh set of sheets out of the linen closet, crumpled to hell and pressed them. Not with my hands, but with an iron. That's right. I ironed an entire queen set of sheets and a comforter. It took forever, but guess what? The focal point of my room, the bed looks really, really sexy right now. I enjoy collapsing on it to go to sleep and the thing I re-remembered when I made it up the first morning after I slept in it: it only takes a few minutes in the morning to make the bed. My day starts on the right foot because I leave a clean room and my evening ends well because I have an inviting bed to pass out on.

Yeah, as silly as it may sound, it's the little things that matter. Such as saying "Good Morning." When people are standing around scratching their heads wondering why the world is coming to an end, the little things that created the problem always elude them.

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