I am good — one might even suggest excellent — at making New Year’s resolutions.

Lose weight.

Become fit.

Clean out the accumulated mess in my basement and attic.

The good news is I never need to waste precious post-Christmas-pre-New Year’s do-nothing hours contemplating what to include on my list for the upcoming year. I simply scan my old computer files: “New Year’s Resolutions 2014.” Or… 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010… all the way back to a time before Steve Jobs.

The list doesn’t change, probably hasn’t since the year I scratched out my first I-will-be-better compilation on the walls of the cave. Lose weight. Become fit. Clean out the accumulated mess … Rinse and repeat.

The problem is I am less good — one might even suggest abysmal — at keeping my resolutions. They rarely out-last the countdown to midnight, the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” the morning after the night before.

So this year I resolve not to resolve the same old. I resolve to come up with a list of new resolutions I will not … er, will keep.

1. Buy local. It’s easy to get seduced by online deals and big-box prices that do nothing for our economy. We need to do stuff for our economy. Read the Ivany Report. (Resolution to self: stop referencing the Ivany report every second column.) This will, of course, necessitate eating at local-source restaurants while drinking Nova Scotia beer and wine. Who knew keeping resolutions could be so easy?
2. Take the bus. I can/should walk to work. But if more of us took the bus more often, transit services might finally improve, and then we’d take the bus because we want to.
3. Enjoy the city. It amazes me whenever I show off my city to visitors what a wonderful place it is — and how little I take advantage of all it has to offer.
4. Hang out. At the new library. On the waterfront. In Point Pleasant Park. On Spring Garden Road.

Will I actually keep any of these resolutions? I would like to think so. But I’ve been down this resolution road too many times before. I resolve not to worry about that.

Happy New Year!!