Shakespeare Geek Resolutions

Ok, with a little (lotta!) help from Bardfilm we did Shakespeare's New Year's Resolutions. So how about some of our own? I'll start.

I will:

• speak publicly on the topic of Shakespeare. Not sure how, exactly, but it's a goal. Take it to the real world.



• use my experience in publishing my first book, Hear My Soul Speak, to try a second.



• expand my empire by turning on some of the Shakespeare-related domains I've been sitting on for awhile now.



• make more concerted effort to see Shakespeare productions. I'm always up for a local, high-quality Hamlet or Lear, of course. But if you told me tomorrow that King John was playing in Somerville in some dinky little local community theatre, I'd typically pass. Got to get better at that. Saw a high school production of Winter's Tale last year, that's a good start. And hiking it into Boston by myself so I wouldn't miss the Tempest movie was a step in the right direction as well.

On a related note, I learned something recently about motivation. The traditional reasoning I've always heard goes like this -- announce your intentions publicly, that way you feel accountable for actually doing them. Makes sense. Recently, though, I heard the exact opposite. Namely that those people who announce their intentions are the least likely to actually achieve them. Has something to do with the fact that if you keep it to yourself, then whether or not you do it is driven entirely by whether or not you want it enough, but if you announce it, then you have more of a burden on your shoulders that you feel like you have to do it. Plus, now you've opened up the door psychologically that "Talking about how close I am to my goals is kind of like getting closer toward them." Which is, of course, a gigantic error.

And oh hey look! Shakespeare had something to say on the topic, who'd have guessed?

Talkers are no good doers: be assured

We come to use our hands and not our tongues.