Finally...

    This post is a long time coming...a positive one!  For the most part, that is.  'Tis the new year, 2007.  What's funny is that we all hope it will be a good one for us.  In all reality, each progressing year rarely is.  I guess the positive side to the new year is the fact that we all set goals to accomplish throughout the year.  Some of them are realistic.  Some are not.  I sometimes wonder what the three most common new year's resolutions are that people set for themselves.  I'm assuming they are (for single people)...

• Getting in Shape
• Finding the love of their life
• Enriching their financial status

    I would assume that the people who have already achieved these things now set smaller; more humble goals.  I may be generalizing too much, but I'm assuming this applies to most people.  If not, then I guess I'm wrong.  Ohh well, right?

    In addition to setting goals, there are also psychological aspects to the turning of a new year.  For me, it is a kind of release of mental pressure.  I feel that all the problems I dragged through my brain throughout the year have been let go.  Why is this the case?  I don't know.  Does it really matter to me to ask why?  Not really.  I'm just glad it happens.  It's just one of the few things I take for granted.  In all reality, it's so insignificant that I always forget that new years has such a psychological effect.

    So what do I expect to accomplish this year?  What do I want to change?  Did I ever accomplish any of last year's goals?  Here's what I wanted to do last year but didn't...

• Play about 1,000 hours of online poker
• Turn my long term results from a losing player to a winning player
• Enter a major tournament ($1,000+ buy-in)
• And of course, the top three standard ones stated previously

    I ended up only playing about 220 hours.  That's pretty sad, because if I really applied myself, I could have achieved that many hours in about two months.  Instead, it took me twelve.  The second goal is a hard one.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to accomplish this one and now I have to give up online poker to concentrate more on school.  It would of been nice to turn a small profit from playing, but by analyzing my results it seems I just don't have the discipline.  Now my third goal is more of a pipe dream.  It'd be really nice, but in all reality I just can't afford it unless I won a lot of money online.  If you go to www.yeags.com I will have my results for the year of 2006 posted and write an analysis of what I've learned from my playing experiences.

    What accomplishments do I expect for this year?  I guess they are somewhat different this year now that poker has been put on the back burner.  Really, I should make a big effort to make my life more stable.  Once I've done that, everything else will fall in place more easily.  Just getting through junior college would be a big accomplishment for me.  I've forgotten how many times I've dropped or retaken the same courses over and over.  I think I'm doing better now that I have more of an idea of what I really want to study.  Music, even though it was fun at times, has been an overall disappointment during my time in school.  It took me three years to figure out I didn't want to make it a career.  Now I'm taking a shot at physics and I'm just going to stick with it.  At my point in life, I really don't have time to keep changing my academic studies.

    What else do I expect for this year?  Other than school, I'm not too sure now.  I can always work on the top three, I suppose.  As far as last years goals, the only thing changing would be my poker activity.  Besides the basics, everything else will just be up in the air this year.  I'll just have to live more by a kind of buddhist way of life or the "carpe diem" theme.  This year anything goes.