We’re now a few days into the new year, and I’m wondering how many of us already have broken our resolutions?

To be honest, I have a tendency not to set actual resolutions for that very reason. It’s the pressure we put on ourselves as part of the observance and tradition, and the disappointment we feel when we aren’t able to accomplish them.

I don’t like making big lists at the beginning of the year, tending more to come up with a couple of goals every couple of months. Admittedly, that hasn’t helped much, especially in the last couple of years.

However, there are a few general ideas that shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish, so please indulge me.

For starters, I think it’s about time I update my headshot both for this column and my press ID. The photo you see here is easily a good 10 years old at this point, and, outside of now sporting a beard, I’ve also earned quite a few more gray hairs in the time since it was taken.

There are a few skills I would like to work on as well.

Journalism is a constantly changing industry, for better or worse. Look at newspapers from 100 years ago, and consider how many of them were able to fill their pages with photographs, for example. When I was in college, our photography classes were still taught using film. In fact, I may still have the developing tank I used. Digital photography was quickly coming into the picture, and I remember when I started at the newspaper, our staff had to share the two or three cameras we were provided.

Today, of course, most of us can take pictures on our phones.

We didn’t have a website for our papers until a few years later.

Video quickly is becoming an element in the print side of journalism, as well, though, and we are encouraged to incorporate it occasionally in our reporting.

So, it would be helpful to find ways, either through work or on my own, to learn more about photography, videography and editing for both. It might not even hurt to learn a few tricks on graphic creation.

I’m sure all would be beneficial both for business, and some possible personal projects I’ve considered.

It’s can’t be all about work, though. I need to do better in balancing all aspects of my life, and that especially means being more present in things away from news.

I have a tendency to allow myself to get buried in one or two things, and not pay attention to other areas, no matter how much I say there are important to me. I understand I have responsibilities, to this newspaper, and, as a result, to this community, but I have other responsibilities as well. There’s been a lot going on in my home life the last few years, and that has to take some focus too.

I would like to visit somewhere new to me at some point this year. I’ve always had that itch of the travel bug, but there hasn’t been opportunity in recent years. Too often, I’ve found myself going to the same, comfortable place. I’d like to change that this year, even if it has to be a quick, weekend thing.

I still have eight or nine state parks to visit to complete my card for West Virginia’s Very Important Parks Person program. Many of those are places I’ve never visited, and most are at the more “resort” state parks, where it would be easy enough to get a room to make it an overnight trip.

Picking some out-of-state destinations would be nice, too.

Hopefully, I can manage at least some of these, and they’re long-term enough that I can work on them throughout the year without too much pressure.

Let’s try to take things slow and easy this year. There’s going to be enough to worry about.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)