New Years Resolutions
We are eight days into the new year and I’m sure many of us have already forgotten about or haven’t done anything to start on our new years resolutions. Every year we try and become better people by declaring the vaguest things about our lives. I will be healthier in ‘09! I am not going waste any money in ‘09! I’m going to learn French in ‘09! etc.
These are all great things to want to do and are things that should be pursued. I think one of the things that keeps up from being able to follow through with our resolutions is that we decide to do things that will take the whole year, but we never take the second step to break the goal down into something more manageable.
Say if you wanted to be healthier this year. Why not start by bringing your lunch to work instead of going out to eat. The odds are that you will exercise more portion control and be able to choose foods that aren’t as artery clogging as what the drive-thru is offering. This doesn’t seem like much but it is a serious start towards lowering calorie intake. Then in February why not start walking in the evenings. Don’t try for the marathon first, get used to do things and slowly build up to what your end goal is.
Also, Reward yourself! If you don’t want to waste money and you start budgeting. Why not make an envelope and put ten dollars in it a week, and then once a month you will have about forty dollars that you can spend on whatever you want. This way you can have some fun while you work towards becoming a saver and not a waster.
Reading, and even writing, about these things is fairly easy and the follow through is the hard part, but it usually is worth the sense of accomplishment. Don’t forget about the joy of being able to have a NEW new years resolution for 2010. So one last bit of advice would be to find a friend to do this with, or even start a blog or journal to track your progress. This way you can avoid the crushing loneliness of feeling like you’re the only trying to do better and maybe you can make a friendship stronger or make new friends at the same time.
Anyway, here is to a new year! Let’s knock out some resolutions!
