Well, here we are. It is the day after Christmas. The big finale is over. You're sitting on the sofa looking at all the toys and boxes strewn about. The Christmas tree is waiting to be shot -- to be put out of its misery. Your brain is weary and your eyes hurt. While you are breathing a sigh of relief about having survived yet another Christmas, you suddenly realize the next holiday is right around the corner. You break out in a cold sweat, dread envelops you and tightens it's icy hand around your throat. What are you going to do and when will you have time to do it? Do what you ask?? Why write out your New Year's Resolutions of course!
Ahhh, the loathsome list of New Year's Resolutions! People try to avoid this task almost as much as standing in line at Walmart on Christmas Eve! You try to relax again telling yourself not to worry...that you can skip it this year to give yourself a break. After all, didn't you go all out for Thanksgiving and Christmas?! But your brain is racing, already thinking about all the things you will never accomplish during the following year.
The bad thing about New Year's Resolutions is that we always place unrealistic expectations upon ourselves. When we underachieve, we feel like epic failures. We dismiss the list with a scoff, but it eats away at us that we couldn't quite reach the mark. We try repeatedly to block it from our thoughts and feel successful until one day, while cleaning out the utility drawer, we happen across the grocery receipt that contains the "list". Our hands tremble as we read over the list, with one eye closed I might add. It is at this time we conclude that we are failures and will never amount to anything. But it doesn't have to be this way.
If you feel that you just cannot NOT create a list of New Year's Resolutions, let me give you a pointer that will help you when you decide to sit down and write that list. Be realistic. It is as simple as that. If you decide that you need to participate in an exercise program and/or lose weight in the New Year, don't write that you will lose 20 or 30 pounds and join a gym. Write that you will be more health conscious during the New Year. Doing this will automatically result in weight loss and probably prompt you to take the stairs in lieu of an elevator or escalator. It also might just encourage you to find a good Pilates tape! :-)
Being realistic in our goals will prevent us from having that "epic failure" feeling and attitude. While I aspire to write and publish a blog every day in 2011, realistically I know that will never happen. So my resolution will be to write and publish as many blogs as I am inspired to write or have time to write. In so doing, I am accomplishing an item that I have placed on my resolution list.
The list shouldn't bring on feelings of underachievement or epic failure. New Year's Resolutions should inspire us to set goals for ourselves, to make us better than we were the year before, if we so desire! Go ahead, sit down and make that list. Set achievable, realistic goals. When you do, you will smile with pride and satisfaction as you check off each one in the coming year!
I'm just sayin',
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