Well, it’s that time of the year again.

Time to make some personal and professional resolutions. Every year about this time, I resolve to lose weight, get in better shape, and finish my one-man show about Chicago.

And every year, right about January 25th, I find myself at El Jardin’s, drinking margaritas and eating the steak burrito platter, instead of working out and writing.

But this year is going to be different! I feel it!

Does anyone out here have any professional resolutions they’d like to share with the group? In my column last week in Ragan Report, I listed six things that every communicator should try to do at least once in the New Year.

Here are three of them:

Suggestion #1: Stand up to your corporate lawyers one time. Just once this year, when the lawyer tells you to kill a story, question him on it. Show him that other companies in similar industries have done similar stories. Press him. Ask him, “Is it really a legal risk . . . or just something you’d rather not do?”

Most communicators I know duck and run as soon as the lawyers open their mouths. Just once, stand your ground and see what happens.

Suggestion #2: Have a three-martini lunch. But here’s the catch: Don’t take a nap afterwards. I have four or five three-martini lunches a year . . . but they always result in a three-hour nap in the afternoon. The suggestion here is to have a three-martini lunch and then go back to work all afternoon. You know, people used to do this all the time . . . and you know who those people became? The Greatest Generation of All Time!

Huge businesses were founded and expanded after three-martini lunches. Wars were won, America became a superpower, and entire industries sprang to life and thrived! Who knows how much we can accomplish after a three-martini lunch unless we try!

Suggestion #3: Spend one day with no communication technology—no computer, no Blackberry, no cell phone, no pager. Turn everything off. Make a pad of paper and a pen your only companion . . . and allow your brain to roam free, looking for ideas. Ideas about how to improve your communication programs, or how to be a better parent, or how to move up in your career.

See how much you can get done in one day, when you don’t have any of the tools that are supposed to help you get more done. Granted, you’ll probably have to take a day off work to do this one . . . but it may be the best sick day you ever take.

Those were three of my own professional resolutions. But here in the blog, since it’s my online diary, I also wanted to share some personal resolutions. In 2006, I plan to:

Fly straight sober. That’s right, just like the regular people do. No Xanax, no gin, no wine, no nothing. I’m going to get on the plane just like a normal grown-up person, have a cup of coffee, pull out my laptop, get some work done, maybe read a book.

If I manage to survive, I am going to then walk calmly off the plane, get into a taxicab, go to the hotel, strip off my urine-drenched pants, take a shower, and then go have a martini to celebrate.

I am only going to do this once . . . but I have to do it.

One day, I’m going to answer the phone every time it rings. Every single time. I’m not going to look at Caller Id. I’m not going to duck my mother, or my editors at Ragan, or bill collectors, or my wife, or anybody else.

I have developed a serious phone phobia in the past two years, and I somehow need to shake myself out of it. So on February 29th, 2006, I am going to answer every single call that comes in.

I am going to stop screwing with telemarketers. Other than my son, the only people I answer the phone for are telemarketers. And as soon as I’m sure it’s a telemarketer and not a potential client, I shift into my severely retarded person’s voice, and start saying things like, “My rubber pants are too tight. Can you help me?” and “May I play with Mr. Willie now?”

It’s a hell of a lot of fun, because telemarketers are trained not to be the one to end the call, ever. I’ve had some of them on the line for 15 minutes. But it’s really not fair or nice to do that to them. They’re just trying to do their jobs. So no more sport at the expense of those people.

Those are my big resolutions. Anyone out here have any they want to share? Either personal or professional? Sometimes, just by saying them in public, it makes you work harder to keep them . . . or so I’m told, anyway. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never once in my entire life made a resolution and kept it.

But this year will be different!