31 Dec is both “Make-up-your-mind Day” where you can make a decision and determine to follow-through on it; and “You’re-all-done Day” where you can acknowledge, to yourself and others, what you have accomplished the past year and savor the completion of long and difficult tasks.<\/p>\n
I suspect that these two celebrations are easier than just accounting for the New Year’s Resolutions made and broken the same week.<\/p>\n
If it is true that you become what you think about most–then the first day of the New Year is an excellent time to resolve to think more about important things.<\/p>\n
Just consider, if you think about trivia, you can become trivial.\u00a0 You attract others who are also trivial.\u00a0 When you associate with intellectual midgets, you shrink.<\/p>\n
Just consider, if you invest little time and effort researching your background, you discover little about your ancestors.\u00a0 You have little or no historical base from which to trace those who present particular challenges.\u00a0 The easy ancestors fall out of the tree before you.\u00a0 It’s the difficult-to-find people in your background you will miss.<\/p>\n
And interestingly enough, the easy ancestors are not all that fascinating to you.\u00a0 Just consider the ones that really excite you and provide the stimulus to spend time on their stories–the “lost,” the “weird,” the “hidden,” and the so-called “black sheep.”\u00a0 These are the ancestors that attract the mileage.<\/p>\n
These hard-to-find ancestors are the ones that provoke you to attend retreats and conferences.\u00a0 These are the rascals that you ask questions about.\u00a0 These are the pedigree ladies you memorize the legends and traditions about.<\/p>\n
Good resolutions for New Year 2010 include a concrete plan<\/em> for personal and intellectual development and study that will enable you to track these tough ancestors–so that next 31 Dec you can relate the decisions you made about them and what you discovered for real about them.\u00a0 I plan to do the same!<\/p>\n You all know that my computer skills\u00a0 are less than I need to do my work well.\u00a0 So my resolutions are to increase my knowledge.\u00a0 Buy a laptop and learn to work wireless.\u00a0 Practice transferring my father’s research and my grandfather’s temple work into Roots Magic <\/strong><\/em>and onto flash-drives for each of my adult family members.<\/p>\n I share my intent with you all, so that I have a more potent reason to excel at something concrete in genealogy this year.\u00a0 Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle\u00a0 http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/p>\n PS\u00a0 I have also reved up my speaking assignments in 2010 (watch my Speaking Schedule for a venue near you, so you can attend) and my field research opportunities.\u00a0 Whenever possible, I include events and research to maximize my exposure to new and exciting sources, and thus success for my client work.\u00a0 Costs as well as time can be shared.<\/p>\n PPS\u00a0 If you have field research or ancestors who need a chance at new information, let me know.\u00a0 I can add you and yours to my schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 31 Dec is both “Make-up-your-mind Day” where you can make a decision and determine to follow-through on it; and “You’re-all-done Day” where you can acknowledge, to yourself and others, what you have accomplished the past year and savor the completion … Continue reading