About That Resolution to Be More Punctual

I made three New Year's Resolutions this year and in case you're wondering, yes, I'm the New Years resolution-making kind. I know plenty of people who refuse, saying they regard the entire year as a chance to work on self-improvement and making resolutions once a year just sets you up to be disappointed in yourself. However, in the same way I like to make a wish before I blow out my birthday candles, even if I know it isn't going to come true — at this point I highly doubt River Phoenix will ask me out — I like annual rituals.

Here were the three:

—Be more punctual.

—Be better with names.

—Stop trying to change people's minds.

It's the last one that's proving the most difficult, and also the first one. The second isn't vexing me but only because it's early yet and I haven't met that many new people.

But let's go through them one by one for the next three weeks.

There have been phases of my life where I've been early and ones where I've run late. My default is to run late.

Growing up it was usually a fashion meltdown that delayed me. Shortly before leaving the house I'd look in the mirror, dislike what I saw and feel compelled to try on all the outfits in my closet, march out into the living room, ask my parents if each successive one looked OK, refuse to believe what they told me and then anxiously put back on the clothes I started in because by this point I was significantly late.

"Don't you need to go? Aren't you late? What time were you supposed to be there?" my mom would ask, worried, in the midst of the neurotic fashion show. "A half hour ago," I'd say somewhat angrily through tears as if this was beside the point. The point was that I didn't look good and I certainly didn't feel OK and seemingly no one got it in the way I needed.

I want to think this was a normal teenage girl thing, but maybe it was specific to me. It's a shame I was raised by humans instead of therapists.

Things got better in college, probably because I had fewer full-length mirrors.

Eventually I moved to New Year where, miraculously, I became the person who was usually a little early. It was something about not driving and instead relying on public transportation — to get anywhere in New York pretty much takes about an hour — that forced me into a lifestyle where I stopped cutting it so close. There were a small handful of times where I did run late, but there is something deeply unpleasant about nervously wondering when you're going to arrive while either sitting in the back of a cab, waiting on a subway platform or running down a busy block, more so than when you're behind the wheel of your own car, that I never wanted to experience it again.

The punctuality stayed with me for a good while upon moving back to California. But in the three years since I've been back, it's been slowly eroding. It's no longer about how I look — though that particular meltdown is always within reach — but a combination of having a puppy I feel guilty about leaving and working with Adam Carolla.

Adam famously views time as money on a very literal level and therefore regards every extra minute he spends getting somewhere early as diluting the amount he's making. Because I often ride with him to shows, I've become accustomed to stepping on stage a couple minutes after arriving somewhere. It isn't his thinking that's rubbed off on me so much as a comfort level with cutting it very close.

So this year I'm trying to revert to the earlier, more punctual version of myself if only because every time I'm five or ten minutes late these days — which is every time I try to go somewhere — I feel surprised and confused. Clearly my calculations are off. And I feel weird and ashamed of the way the last 45 text messages I've sent have been a combination of, "Almost there!" "A couple mins away!" or "Sorry, almost there, a couple mins away!" Sometimes I think I should just text if I'm going to be on time.

Since making the resolution, I've been better but not perfect. If you're also grappling with trying to be more punctual, how are you going about it? Let me know, but don't expect me to remember your name.

Hear more from Alison Rosen on her podcast, "Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend" or on the immensely popular "Adam Carolla Show" podcast. Follow her on Twitter @alisonrosen or visit her website at www.alisonrosen.com.