Around this time I like to think back on the previous year and connect all the dots. Where I was, to where I am, to where I’m going. A lot of things happened. In hindsight it seemed a year where things were eliminated. A year where I got rid of the unnecessary and focused on the the things that mattered.

Simplify and eliminate: gain mental clarity. The past year I sold, gave away, or threw out a lot of things. My rule was, if I haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it. This dictum applied to everything I owned. Clothes, books, movies, music, furniture, et cetera. Anything that had been sitting on the shelf for a while, in a box or drawer, waiting for that perfect moment to become useful, was tossed. I imagine those things were like the actor, waiting on the wings of the stage for his cue to play the Deus ex Machina but, in my experience, the day when your toaster oven alters the course of destiny rarely comes.

For me, there’s a correlation between the objects I own and my happiness. And I’m happier with less. There are a few reasons for this. All objects come with a tax attached. At it’s worst, it stirs an obsessive and selfish desire to gather and accumulate more. At it’s best it’s mental baggage. I completely understand the desire to accumulate. On one level, owning things is a survival mechanism, a way to prepare for the uncertainties that life tosses at us, so that when we need a certain kernel of knowledge, there’s a book on the shelf that reminds us, or there’s enough dry pasta in the cupboard to ease our hunger for the week, or fancy dinnerware to impress our friends. On another level, it’s a way of charting our lives like a photo album, a way to look back, because when we glance at the books on our shelf we don’t just see novels, but a reflection of who we were as we read them.

I once read a Sherlock Holmes mystery where Watson meets Holmes, I believe, for the first time. Watson is surprised that Holmes doesn’t know that the earth is round and spins on an axis. Holmes replies that he’s a detective, and if the earth spins around or not doesn’t help him solve the crime. It was Holmes’s theory that the mind only had so much space and it was vital to fill it with important information. In his case, knowledge that aided him in his detective work.

There is such a thing as too much information. Useless, unproductive data does nothing but give us the illusion that we’re informed while it fills up the limited hard drive space in our heads.

By throwing things away, I started to notice how much of an influence our environments have on us. A simple, clean environment, generates clear and simple thought, while a messy, cluttered space leads to disorganized and distracted thought. The more I threw out, the more mental clarity I gained. I threw out my TV, about 80 % of my clothes which I never wore, my appliances that I rarely used, books that I wasn’t going to read again.

Having done this, I realized that almost everything can be found for very little cost and very little effort. Books (with exceptions) I rarely read twice, and they can easily be borrowed from any library. Even obscure foreign movies, which years ago used to difficult to find, are now readily available, cheap or free to borrow from friends, libraries or rental companies.

Once these things were gone I found that I didn’t miss them. A lot of my favourite movies were purged, and it was such a relief that I no longer had to watch them. Each film had been clamouring for my attention like a pack of screaming children yelling Pick Me, Pick Me, on the baseball field. I would feel guilty when I passed over a serious Bergman movie in favour of watching Lost in Translation for the 10th time. But now that these things are gone I have greater choice of what I want to watch, no guilt if I don’t finish a book. They’re gone from my consciousness like the weekly trash.

Now a year is too long of a wait to throw something out. Once a month, I actively purge.

Walking is good for the soul. I’ve been fortunate to know a lot of good walkers in my life. Growing up, my friend Conor was a notorious walker. He would cover great distances as a kid, would refuse to take the bus somedays, and we would walk epic journeys home from school.

Somehow I forgot all about the pleasure of walking and this year I got it back. It’s the closest experience I have to meditation. My thoughts just pour out in a pleasant stream and I just step inside the warm water and go along. Every time I step out of my door I feel the calming effect that walking has on me. If I’ve had a rough day, or I’m dealing with some crisis, a walk is the best medicine, an instant cure.

Know your priorities and eliminate everything else. I used to work freelance as an assistant editor for documentaries. I did this for many years, but somewhere in the past year I lost interest. The money was good, but the work itself was becoming an annoyance and it was hard for me to concentrate on writing while my days were spent doing something uninspiring. I sat down one day, made a list of all the things that were draining my energy and a list of all the things that were giving me energy. What did I hate doing? What made me want to sleep in? What got me excited to get up? What were my priorities and what wasn’t? In the end I eliminated everything that was giving me stress or wasn’t part of my goals in life. Assistant editing was a good job but it was never my dream to be an assistant editor, and once I realized that, it was easy to let it go.

Being a regular is one of the finer things in life. Every day I go to the same coffee shop, order the same thing, and sit down for a couple hours, sometimes in the same spot, to write. I’ve got to say that being a regular, in a nice atmosphere, with good people on staff is one of the finer pleasures. You won’t know this joy until you’ve ordered The Usual, can greet your servers by name, and recommend comic books to each other.

A Not to Do list is just as important as a To Do list. Some of my favourite not-to-dos are:

• Do not check e-mail more than 2 times a day; never check work emails at home.
• Do not stay cooped up in the apartment for longer than four hours. Get outside, go for a walk, or call a friend.
• Do not go on the internet without a clear goal or time-limit.
• Do not put up with morons, fools, or rudeness.
• Do not come up with excuses, come up with solutions.

Never lend books. I stole this mantra from Battlestar Galactica as, I assume, Admiral Adama knows what he’s talking about. Now if someone wants to borrow a book it’s a gift. The borrower can read it, or not read it, guilt free of ever returning it.

Nothing is impossible. In the summer I decided to run a marathon. There was no real reason. I had done a bit of running throughout the winter but I was never really serious about it. At the time I signed up, probably the furthest I ever ran was five miles. The first thing I did was fire off an email to a couple of friends with the subject line Men or Pussies? and asked if anyone wanted to run a marathon with me. Without waiting for a response I sighed up to run a full marathon in September, giving me roughly four months to train. In the end my friends were very supportive, but didn’t (pussies) sign up to run. It didn’t matter.

I think the reason why I did it was because I needed a challenge. I was uninspired in life and wanted something hard to do, that would require determination and physical stamina to complete. I felt that by giving myself such a challenge, and working hard towards a goal it would pay off in numerous ways. I had the idea that when I crossed the finish line I would break through some veil and come out on the other side enlightened, complete, a confident man. It didn’t exactly happen like that. In September I did exactly what I set out to do and ran the marathon without walking a step. I pushed my body and mind into new and unfamiliar territories. I learnt a lot about pain. I leant about the power your mind has over your body. But did I punch through some invisible wall and come out on the other side a changed human being? Well…yes and no. I’m basically the same person post-marathon as I was before. But there is one key difference. It’s a general attitude that I carry around with me everywhere I go, like you would your wallet or keys and it’s this: any challenge can be overcome, no matter how great. Nothing is impossible. You can do anything you want.

Resolutions for 2010. Here are a few things I want to accomplish this year.

• Finish my book.
• Learn to speak and read Japanese.
• Move to Japan.
• Walk the length of Japan, north to south.
• Be financially self-sufficient.
• Eat healthier, be more health-conscious.
• Learn a martial art.

What are some of the things you learnt last year? What are your resolutions for 2010?