In the spirit of New Year’s Eve, the Daily Record asked almost three dozen area business and civic leaders to offer their top personal or professional resolutions for 2012.
By making resolutions, they join the estimated 40-45 percent of adults who make at least one.
While the tradition began long before, the modern form of New Year’s resolutions has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” published in 1738.
Among Franklin’s resolutions, according to www.about.com, is: “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.”
Then there is the one from Mark Twain: “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
The resolutions presented here range from the lighthearted to the serious, and all reflect the common wish for a better 2012.
Happy New Year.
356-2466
Shahid Khan
Owner
Jacksonville Jaguars
“I am determined in 2012 to hire and introduce a head coach who will lead the Jaguars to unprecedented and sustained success while rallying our fans, our 12th man, to one sellout after another at EverBank Field.”
Pam Bondi
Attorney General
State of Florida
“My main goal is to continue to try to be the best Attorney General that I can be and make Florida a better place to live. On a personal note, I’d like to add a bit more balance with my family life in 2012.”
Martin “Hap” Stein Jr.
Chairman, Director and CEO
Regency Centers Corp.
“Foster the engagement, energy and focus of Regency’s talented and dedicated team on achieving the company’s key strategic objectives. Grow my wonderful relationships with my special friends and amazing family.”
Mayor Alvin Brown
City of Jacksonville
“My personal New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to focus more on family and friends.”
Neil Armingeon
St. Johns Riverkeeper (retiring Jan. 31)
“Given my impending change, my resolution is to let somebody else worry about this for a little while.”
Pat Blanchard
Director
Jacksonville Women’s Business Center
“Personally, to enjoy more time at our area beaches (from Fernandina to St. Augustine) either for exercise/power walks or rest and relaxation and to spend time working in the yard with my garden of plants/annuals and shrubs. Professionally, building upon the JWBC mission beyond Duval County — we serve a seven-county region in Northeast Florida, and to enhance the strategic message: growing clients (women-owned small businesses), investors and volunteers.”
Michael Blaylock
Executive Director/CEO
Jacksonville Transportation Authority
“Learn how to play golf and learn how to play the piano.”
Rick Catlett
President and CEO
The Gator Bowl Association
“Trying to treat other people like I would want them to treat me.”
Michael Cavendish
Chair, Jacksonville Transportation Authority
Shareholder, Gunster
“I would like to dart and drag away the rhinoceros-size pile of paper in my office. I would like to keep up with some old friends better than I did in 2011.”
Maria Coppola
Director of Public Relations
BroadBased Communication
“My New Year’s resolution is to find hope and joy in all places. Find the happiness we all had in surplus before the recession. I’m going to start by eliminating recession, downturn and economic cutbacks from my daily conversations. We are going to focus on positive energy in 2012.”
Matthew Corrigan
Chair
University of North Florida Department of Political Science and Public Administration
“Try to understand the most unusual presidential election of my lifetime. Ask for divine guidance to find the University of Notre Dame a consistent quarterback.”
Roger Dodd
Partner
Spohrer & Dodd
“More gracefully relax into ‘middle age.’”
G. Ray Driver Jr.
President-elect, The Jacksonville Bar Association
Founding partner, Driver, McAfee, Peek & Hawthorne
“I resolve to do my best not to destroy the great history and reputation that The Jacksonville Bar Association has created over the past 115 years during my short 12-month tenure. I resolve to keep Hank Coxe on my speed dial (but hope that I never actually have to call him).”
Steve Grossman
Executive Director/CEO
Jacksonville Aviation Authority
“To work out and get healthier. I want to lose some weight.”
Barbara Gubbin
Director
Jacksonville Public Library
“Persuade more people to share my love of reading, learning and the library. Pick up a new book in the New Year!”
Chris Hand
Chief of Staff
Mayor Alvin Brown
“No. 1, to get back in shape. No. 2, to spend more time with friends and family. No. 3, do whatever I can to be the best Jacksonville Jaguars and Florida Gators fan I can be.”
Janet Herrick
Owner, Onsite Environmental Consulting LLC
2011 JAX Chamber Small Business Leader of the Year
“I’m going to take more time to play like the Gen-Xer I am. I want to get outside more, go rock climbing. That’s my real passion, but I just want to enjoy it out there.”
Jim Johns
President
The Johns Group Inc.
“For 2012, I resolve to achieve a greater sense of balance in all aspects of my life.”
Michael Kirwan
President, Association for Corporate Growth North Florida Chapter
Partner, Foley & Lardner
“To have dinner with family and friends more often in 2012, to better master home technology and to help grow our local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.”
Melanie Lawson
Anchor/Reporter
The Morning Show
WJXT TV-4
“This year I will embark on a new title and the adventure of my life. I’ll become a mom in May, so my resolutions are a little less self-centered. Aside from learning to be a wonderful mother, I’m resolved to purging myself of negativity. I’m giving up my guilty pleasure of toxic reality television shows. Real Housewives don’t make the cut! Goodbye ladies ...”
Rutledge “Rut” Liles
Former president, The Florida Bar
Managing partner, Liles, Gavin, Costantino, George & Dearing
“Work harder on nurturing friendships. (Too many old friends died this past year and I always regret that I didn’t do more to keep in touch and let them know how much they meant to me). Get a better hearing aid so people will quit yelling at me.”
Emily Lisska
Executive Director
Jacksonville Historical Society
“Establish an exercise regimen. I may look reasonably fit, but I am not. Drink more water. I drink almost no water and that must change. As a native, my preferred drink is lots of iced tea. I know this resolution sounds simple, but changing behavior is not simple. I resolve to take time off and visit places I’ve never been, including my plan to visit every Presidential Home and Library. I rarely take time off work. I plan to take a week off this winter and another in spring and then the summer. I have an enormous amount of vacation time accumulated that just won’t be used in a small-staffed work place like the Jacksonville Historical Society. But I must begin to get away from time to time. When a lunch break feels like a week’s vacation, you know something is wrong.”
Jerry Mallot
President, JAXUSA Partnership
Executive-on-loan, Mayor Alvin Brown’s economic development team
“Lots of new jobs, updated economic development policies at the City that will help Jacksonville be more successful, and getting back to one job at some point.”
Suzanne Montgomery
Management Psychologist
Montgomery, Copley & Associates
“I cherish this saying of Mother Teresa’s: ‘We cannot do great things in this world; we can only do small things with great love.’ My 2012 resolution is to do more small things — with greater love.”
Candace Moody
Vice President of Communications
WorkSource
“My resolution is to practice patience and calm in the face of delay or uncertainty. Anyone who knows me knows it’s not my strong suit; I hate to just wait for things to happen. But this is my year of Zen.”
Janet Owens
Executive Director
Local Initiatives Support Corporation-Jacksonville
“I commit to spend more time with my family, modify my eating habits and stick with my exercise plan past February. I will learn about and meet everyday heroes and community champions in urban Jacksonville’s older neighborhoods and engage them, where possible, to enhance our Building EPIC Communities work in 2012. “
Michael Munz
Partner, Executive Vice President
“My resolution for the new year is to practice the Optimist Creed:
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”
Charlene Shirk
Director, Community Relations
The PGA TOUR
“In 2012, I want to make a genuine effort to determine what truly adds value to my life and is worth my time and talents. It’s more important to be successful at a few select things than just OK at a lot of things. My new marriage, my new role at the TOUR promoting women’s initiatives and playing a significant role in our community all stand out as worthy of my best efforts. Now I just have to keep that focus until 2013.”
Jake Schickel
Past president, the American Board of Trial Advocates Jacksonville Chapter
Founding partner, Coker, Schickel Sorenson & Posgay
“My resolution is to watch my health and spend more time with my family. After the scare I had with the triple bypass surgery, I’m going to do what it takes to stay around a long time.”
Pamela Smith
Owner’s Representative
El-Ad National Realty
“In 2012 I will try to prioritize and focus where to put my energy (with positive people, noteworthy activities, solid business deals, etc.) so that it is invested in a way to yield the maximum return professionally and personally.”
Kerri Stewart
Senior Vice President
Infinity Global Solutions
“With a major career transition and back surgery behind me in 2011, my specific goals for 2012 are health related: Sub three-hour 26.2 with Donna half marathon, sub 1:45 River Run and sub 100 round of golf — all stretch goals given my current state. Careerwise I want to continue to help my clients achieve their goals while doing what I can to make Northeast Florida the best place in the country to live, work and play.”
Lee Wedekind
The JBA Board of Governors member
Shareholder, Smith Hulsey & Busey
“This year, I plan to begin each workday by taking a few minutes to think about and prioritize my various projects and commitments. Hopefully, looking at the forest before the trees will help me be a more productive and efficient lawyer, board member, husband and dad. I’d also like to find more time to pursue my true passion — bullfighting.”
Robert Arleigh White
Executive Director, Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville
“To be more authentic (I think I can actually hear the people on my staff rolling their eyes over that one. How much more authentic do I need to be, anyway?) To manage the internal noise and chatter inside my head and in my life more effectively through quiet time and a mindful practice of being more ‘present.’”