Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, but the concept is so clichéd as to be almost meaningless. New Year’s resolutions can easily become a passing joke, a promise you make to yourself and then later forgive yourself for breaking. So, even though I have some big-time resolutions for 2010, I hesitate to write about them for fear that doing so may somehow mysteriously place them in the category of, “Things I May Not Do.”
I suppose I’ve put off my first post of the New Year because ideally, it should relate to my resolve to seriously get cracking on my certification as a sommelier. For me, 2010 is meant to be a pivotal year.
I had a head start in December when I first documented, “I want to become a Master Sommelier!” If you put such ambitions in writing and then take the additional step of making those statements public, it’s as if you have issued a “double-dog dare” to yourself. Even if nobody else takes you very seriously, you still end up feeling sheepish if you made a big fuss and then fizzled.
To give myself some credit, as of yesterday, I actually took steps beyond mere contemplation. I researched the difference between certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers and the International Sommelier’s Guild. To me, it seems that the Court of Masters is more for folks currently working in the wine/hospitality industry, while the ISG is for those who want to learn enough to possibly launch their career. Since I don’t have a lot of industry experiencce, it seems I’m better off going to the ISG classes (Parts 1 and 2).
Here is the catch: it will cost $3000, and I will have to surrender 9 weeks of Sundays to all-day classes. When I say that now, neither the cost nor the time involved seem like huge obstacles. Still, it’s going to take some adjustment and discipline to see it through. I don’t look forward to spending my scanty free time away from my family.
There are always a dozen good reasons not to pursue your dream. I can’t assume failure before I even really get started—I’ll just have to do my best and hope that the right combination of capability and luck will happen. So, onward and upward!
(There, I did it. I wrote my first post for 2010. That gets me off the hook for writing anything about my other resolution, which is to cut back on the rich food and wine so I can get back to my “fighting” weight. To resolve to eat healthier and lose weight in the New Year is most definitely a cliché.)
