New Year is scary, we set ourselves ridiculously unobtainable goals that we can never achieve. We're all like "I'm going to go to the gym and get fit" or "I'm going to write that book" or how about "I'm going to relocate to another country", what idiot would do that one!?
We call them New Years Resolutions, as if the start of January is going to be different to the start of any other month, or even this year is going to be different to any other year, when we subscribed to the gym membership.
I'm not criticising, don't worry. I'm as guilty at this as anyone. I'm always setting myself a target I know I can't achieve, no more tweeting Piers Morgan or David Cameron offensive tweets, trust me, I'll never be able to stop, but this year I thought "what if I did something different?".
I've still got my usual "NY ressies", 'keep a diary'? Haha, as if! 'Lead by example', me!? No chance!
Those will come down with the Christmas decs in early Jan but what I will try and achieve is one year, twelve months, one challenge every month. I'm insane. It's only 31 days max, if I can't do this then what hope have I got of changing anything for good?
This month, January - Give up social networking. I know, breathing would have been an easier choice.
I can sense that you can see a flaw with this, I'm blogging, that's a form of social networking but bear with me.
I'm doing these challenges as a form of bettering myself, I use Facebook and Twitter too much to the extent that they become a deterrent or a drug so those are going to be my "cold turkey" for the month of January.
It should be interesting. There are some positives to come from my social network usage, as a writer and a self proclaimed occasionally funny guy I do come up with something witty from time to time.
Through my Twitter account I just ordered my "Tweet Archive*" that shows me my entire tweet history. I'm reading back through them and I'm in stitches, ah the memories.
So me not social networking for a month could have a negative affect on this. What I can do instead is keep a note of this and through that I may be able to work on that diary I was talking about. So I still get the creative experience which is good.
I currently have a challenge for each month of the year, I'm not letting you know what they are until the month begins, but I'm interested if anyone has any ideas, get in touch.
Leave a comment below, contact me through Facebook or Twitter, I'll read it in February or email me at pauljarvis5001@hotmail.com
What happens if I fail? Nothing, I log that I failed, I get back up and I carry on.
If, for example I get to January the 10th and I decide that I can't survive without looking at Twitter and then I do take a peek then I'm not going to call the whole thing off.
I'll make that part of the story and carry on. If I decide that I can't log on to Twitter at least once a day well then so be it, all part of the story.
I'm not doing this for anyone else, I'm doing it for the betterment of myself. I'm not doing it for starving African kids who couldn't give a toss if I logged into Twitter or not.
I'm also not going to lie, if I do it I do it, if I don't then who cares. That'd be like playing FIFA on the Playstation, losing and then turning it off until you win.
I obviously can't share this blog very much so I'd appreciate any help on that, especially this month.
You can still message me, I don't need to log into to Facebook to view my messages.
I guess what I'm getting at is it's not about communication or even networking, it's about my crave for information, I'm constantly looking for updates or information but this month I'm cutting that out.
I can still use Instagram, for posting pictures, and I can still use Timehop, which shows you your social network history from the day your looking at it. From these two apps I can share them on both Facebook and Twitter so you may see something from me pop up from time to time.
Why am I still using Timehop and Instagram? Because I'm trying to cut out the drug of which I'm reliant, I'm not reliant on Instagram or Timehop.
What will I do instead, I shall imagine Wikipedia's shares will increase, that's a joke, Wikipedia doesn't have shares. I love reading Wikipedia.
I'll write more, bounce ideas around in my own head and keep a log/journal of them.
I may even go outside, who knows?
*To get you Tweet Archive, log into your Twitter account on a computer, click on your profile badge on the top right hand of the screen, this brings up a menu, click 'Settings' and when in the next screen click Request Archive', or words to that affect. Imagine David Cameron doing this, it'd be like reading a fictional novel.
