I don't make New Year's Resolutions. There are 3 reasons.
#1 - All the normal stuff that people resolve to do, I am always doing every day of the year. Okay, so no, I do not always eat healthy and I barely have time to exercise and sometimes I use a credit card...but for the most part, I am always trying to be healthier, trying to work out, trying to keep our finances in check.
#2 - Setting a New Year's Resolution is just setting yourself up to fail. All the hype and excitement that comes from the New Year fades and you're left feeling like a failure. And if you're in to making New Year's resolutions, you have to wait a whole year to start again.
#3 - It's only for a year. If I change myself, I want to do it for the better and for always.
So I don't make New Year's Resolutions.
I do, however, make non-exciting, non-holiday resolutions all the time.
First up, I'm trying to blog more. I probably resolve to do this once a month. But I'm now putting it in my blog, so I'm responsible for it. I think about blogging all the time. I mean, like every couple hours of every day I think about writing a blog post. It's just the actual time it takes to sit down and do it that I have trouble pushing through. So now, if you don't see a blog post in awhile, nag me. Do it, I'm giving you permission.
Second, I'm going to get healthy. You would think that chasing after three kids and never sitting down at home, and being up until 11pm at night would keep me active and healthy. You'd be wrong. I am currently at my heaviest (non-pregnant) weight ever. And weight doesn't matter, I keep telling myself that. But it does if you feel unhealthy, and I do feel unhealthy. I sit all day at work. I sleep less than 6 hours most nights. We eat "conveniently" more than I'd like. Clif bought me a Jawbone Up for Christmas. And it has made me realize how much I don't move. How bad I eat at times. How little and lightly I sleep. I need to make better changes.
Third, I don't want to be so self-involved. I think I am a compassionate person. But I don't really show that to people. Honestly, I am busy. I am going from 5 am until 9 pm Monday through Friday. Then the weekends are left to catch up on housework and errands and any kind of fun family time. I don't volunteer, I don't donate, I don't even send freaking birthday cards. My focus is always on me and my family. It's happened because I run out of time, but I need to fix it. I need to pay more attention to the life around me. I try to be a good friend, I try to pay it forward. But damn, it is hard to find the focus and the energy and the time to be all of that. So I am going to try and send birthday cards and I am going to try and do one random kind thing a month. It's the only way I'm going to raise my kids to be good people. I can be a good person in my head all I want, but until I actually do something...I'm just a jackass.
Finally, and this is big and this is one reason my resolutions are not of the New Year's contingent. I want to write a book. I know it won't be this year. It probably won't be next year. It may not be until Cohen is married. But I want to start laying the foundation. I want to actually put it my head that I'm going to write a book and take steps to make it happen. I've wanted to be a writer for a gazillion years. Writing does not pay my bills. So I work in jobs that I never love. I want to make sure that I'm doing something I love, even if I'm not getting paid and even if I have to do something else to survive.
So those are my resolutions. Ones I've been thinking about or acting on for months now. Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Or do you make any-time-I-want resolutions?
