Welcome 2009!!

If you’ve been anywhere the last two weeks, you’ve seen a lot of stuff on TV, on-line, everywhere about the pressure to make – and keep – New Year’s Resolutions. I hate New Year’s Resolutions. Probably because I’ve never kept one. My past promises of losing 50 pounds, reading the bible cover to cover or taking up a new hobby have all fallen by the wayside, leaving me a little round in the middle, halfway through the bible, and hobby-less.

We try, that part we have mastered! But, the follow through is the problem. We can never seem to turn our best ambitions into long-term successes. They say that it takes 30 days to develop a new habit, and by then, a daily routine becomes habitual. As soon as the first 30 days are behind us and we’re racing quickly towards the next 30, 60, 90; we slip up, fall down, forget, bungle and fail. And then we stop trying. That pound we shed during week one is back at some point during the next couple of weeks. We then get in our ruts, forget what it was we aspired to be or, and hope that our conscience doesn’t remind us that we failed.

Every year, we trick and punish ourselves into thinking that this time will be different. So, this year I am trying something new… Every Day Resolutions. Every day set a goal and shoot for it. Don’t worry about whether or not you’ll do it again tomorrow, just focus on today’s goal. It’s simple wake up every day and make a resolution to [fill in the blank]. Say you want to lose 50 pounds, resolve instead to eat healthy today or take the stairs instead of the elevator. And do it!!! Bam!!! You’ve done it!! You’ve made and kept a Every Day Resolution.

Try it and let me know how it works out. You have 353 days left to meet the challenge.