Everyday is January 1

Ok- let’s take a reality check.  How many of you are still following all of you New Year’s Resolutions?  Um… not here.  Every year, I play the game that we all fall into.  I indulge on my time off during the holiday and then vow starting January 1 that I am going to CHANGE and finally get my budget on track, not eat carbs, cut down on my cocktails and workout twice a day.  ( I already workout most days but that helps keep me from killing anyone).  Then by January 2, I am already starting to make bargains and compromises.  Each day I didn’t follow everything I promised the New Years God, I began to feel down and see the end goals further in the distance.  “ I will start Monday”- Sound familiar.

But then around January 4^th, I saw something that spoke to me.  It was a different take on resolutions. Instead of making all these promises of what I was going to start doing or give up,  I should reflect and focus on what I did well.  Wait, what was that?  Yes, reflect and focus on what you did well.  This was a lightbulb or as Oprah would say, “Ah Hah” moment.

I wrote down things I thought I did well over the year.  It ranged from topics like how I handled a difficult situation among two friends to realizing I am very good at even recognizing my mess ups in life so I can take ownership.  More importantly it helped me realize that some of these positive things took time and I didn’t become good at them on a certain day or on command.  So with that, I had to reflect and refocus on my 2018 resolutions.  I still have the same intention of the goals for my original ones.  But this new outlook was more of a strategic plan on how I would accomplish this and acknowledge that changes do not magically happen on January 1. Whew… what a relief.  So now instead of worrying about how many days since Jan. 1 that I had been “good” or “on track”, I realized that every day can be January 1^st.