My sisters are the bomb at setting goals and achieving them. They don’t go for the easy ones either, they push themselves. I’m not so good at it. That's not to say, I haven’t grown, or changed, or accomplished things over the years but most of the time, I feel a little like those things have happened by accident. I’ve always struggled with trying to set goals for myself, especially out loud. Oh, and I am proactive with the excuses as well. Maybe partly because of this, for most of my life, I was not a huge New Year’s resolution participant.
One year, I don’t remember why, we (my sisters and I) missed going on our Sisters Weekend at our normal March time frame. Desperate to not let a whole year go by without having Sisters Weekend, we agreed to go to the Florida keys in early December. We tried to pretend like it was our regular time putting on bathing suits amd headed to the pool for some sun mixed with lively conversations. It wasn’t the same thought. There was just something off. Kind of like on those dreams where you see yourself in very fancy surroundings but find yourself in shorts and flip flops, or maybe naked. Sure there were palm trees and sun and the pool BUT there were also Christmas decorations everywhere including a big plastic Santa statue and nonstop, 24/7, Christmas music playing everywhere. It was impossible to continue to act like it was March and discussions wandered to the upcoming holidays and New Year’s resolutions. This was the first year I can remember making a New Year’s resolution. I started easy and found myself with each day the following year thinking about my resolution and what a sense of accomplishment it gave me to continue.
Since then, I’ve made resolutions each year and each year I feel like I stretch myself a little more. I’ve even gone to making multiple resolutions. One which challenges me and one kind of easy that I can feel very confident to be successful at to be a source of ongoing encouragement.
The problem is as the years go on, it’s easier and easier to think of challenging resolutions and harder and harder to think of the easier ones. So I’ve come up with another way to help encourage me to keep going.
A brain surgeon once told us, it takes 21 days to break a habit, or create one. Using this theory, I’ve decided to not make my resolution for the entire year. Instead I will make one resolution, my more challenging one, for only 21 days. My second resolution will be to renew my first resolution every 21 days. My third resolution is to strive to have the same compassion for myself, I would for someone less. If, for some reason, I don’t succeed, instead of being hard on myself, I'll remind myself not to give up, keep going, one day at a time, one step in front of the other and simply start over. After all January 11, 2013 is over half way through the first 21 days!
Happy New Year! Wishing you a satisfying, wonderful fulfilling year!
One year, I don’t remember why, we (my sisters and I) missed going on our Sisters Weekend at our normal March time frame. Desperate to not let a whole year go by without having Sisters Weekend, we agreed to go to the Florida keys in early December. We tried to pretend like it was our regular time putting on bathing suits amd headed to the pool for some sun mixed with lively conversations. It wasn’t the same thought. There was just something off. Kind of like on those dreams where you see yourself in very fancy surroundings but find yourself in shorts and flip flops, or maybe naked. Sure there were palm trees and sun and the pool BUT there were also Christmas decorations everywhere including a big plastic Santa statue and nonstop, 24/7, Christmas music playing everywhere. It was impossible to continue to act like it was March and discussions wandered to the upcoming holidays and New Year’s resolutions. This was the first year I can remember making a New Year’s resolution. I started easy and found myself with each day the following year thinking about my resolution and what a sense of accomplishment it gave me to continue.
Since then, I’ve made resolutions each year and each year I feel like I stretch myself a little more. I’ve even gone to making multiple resolutions. One which challenges me and one kind of easy that I can feel very confident to be successful at to be a source of ongoing encouragement.
The problem is as the years go on, it’s easier and easier to think of challenging resolutions and harder and harder to think of the easier ones. So I’ve come up with another way to help encourage me to keep going.
A brain surgeon once told us, it takes 21 days to break a habit, or create one. Using this theory, I’ve decided to not make my resolution for the entire year. Instead I will make one resolution, my more challenging one, for only 21 days. My second resolution will be to renew my first resolution every 21 days. My third resolution is to strive to have the same compassion for myself, I would for someone less. If, for some reason, I don’t succeed, instead of being hard on myself, I'll remind myself not to give up, keep going, one day at a time, one step in front of the other and simply start over. After all January 11, 2013 is over half way through the first 21 days!
Happy New Year! Wishing you a satisfying, wonderful fulfilling year!