Hello people of 2015! Breathe it in, everyone. It's a fresh, crisp new year. What are you going to do with it? Oh, I love new years, just like I love new weeks and new days. Ah, what a relief it is that each year and each week and each day we get to start over. Like dear Anne Shirley says, "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"
So what are you going to do with it?
I, like many, make New Year Resolutions every year. And for a long, long time these resolutions lasted for about a week or two before I would give up and submit to all-encompassing depression called January. But for the last few years, I've been successful. I actually kept to my goals throughout the whole year. So now, as I'm creating new goals for this year, I've been pondering over how I was successful and trying to repeat the process. Here's what I've come up with so far.
- Be simple. Have patience. You don't need to change your entire self in one year, so just pick one or two small things. A couple of years ago my goal was simply to lock my car all the time. That was it. No daily plan of how I was going to exercise, clean the entire house, and be the most awesome person ever. 2012 was just about locking car doors. It's a slow, year-by-year journey to perfection. You don't need to do it all at once.
- Start a week late. I found the biggest enemy to keeping my resolutions was the fact that I wasn't quite settled into work and my normal life after being on vacation. So, I always consider the first week of the year as a test run. I expect failure in this first week, but it doesn't get me down because I know I'm still in vacation mode and trying to get used to doing the norm.
- Ask for support. Some goals need others' help. A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to cut down on my use of the words "I'm sorry." I was (and am) one of those people that said it all of the time. I wanted to cut back on using it so that I was more sincere when it should be used. Fortunately, I had a few close and frank friends that I could enlist to call me out on it. Was it super annoying? Yes. Do I say "I'm sorry" less often? Yes.
- Go easy on yourself. You're going to mess up, but that's ok. You're just a human trying to push against the Second Law of Thermodynamics. That's tough business, so cut yourself some slack. The goal is to be a better you when you arrive in the next year in some incremental way. Instead of throwing away the beautiful goal or goals you created, hold fast to them and keep going. I've found that if you do, you forget those times that you didn't quite succeed and you feel like you kept to your goal 100% when you ring in the next year.
Happy New Year, Steph! I hope you're drinking in the idea of a better, more educated, more orderly you.
Cheers,
Amanda
