New Year’s Resolutions and How To Bloody Keep Them.

The Blog World is all a-buzz with talk of New Year’s resolutions, goals, and great aspirations for 2011… the excitement and hopefulness is almost palpable and certainly contagious, and as I read through many of your blogs on hopes and dreams for the new year, I felt I should share a few of my own!  But rather than just list my goals, I’d also like to share a few of my strategies for KEEPING those infamous resolutions we all seem to have abandoned come, oh, FEBRUARY. 

Point in case: 

We regular semi-regular gym goers know how the attendance at said establishment literally BLOWS UP just after Christmas and January 1st.  You can spot the New Year’s Resolutioners from a MILE AWAY, as they are either 300 plus pounds, wearing jeans and a button down on the treadmill, fumbling awkwardly with the machines, or some combination thereof. 

Here’s a couple of my tweets from a particularly amusing/terrifying experience at the gym the other day:

And if you aren’t following me on Twitter, you probably should be.

But my point is, this guy was NOT a regular.  And there is nothing wrong with that, except that so few of these folks who resolve to get in shape for the new year ever DO become regulars.  Inevitably, gym attendance tapers off over the weeks and months after the first of the year, and we all settle back into our lackadaisical lifestyles of despondency and guilt. 

Or maybe that’s just me.

But anyway, this year, I am determined not to let this happen.  And I have a plan.  But first of all, my major resolutions are as follows:

1. Set aside time each morning for prayer and meditation, even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes. 

2. Plan out each week’s chores beforehand, and then actually DO THEM (rather than getting behind, stressing, hating myself, then doing everything at once and becoming exhausted and angry).

3. Go to the gym a minimum of 3 times per week.

4. Make my own money via freelance writing jobs and/or (fingers crossed) THIS BLOG.

However, I am realistic when it comes to these goals.  I know they are not going to achieve themselves, and they are certainly not going to get done by simply being spoken of. 

We must have a plan for achieving our resolutions, my friends.  And it must take place on a much smaller scale.  Namely, a daily and weekly scale.  And it has to be thought out, written out, struggled over, and built into a system of accountability and reward. 

Enter the one dollar Target monthly desk planner:

I have big plans for this baby. 

Basically, I am tracking my daily goals on this calendar, and I feel that it could be helpful no matter what your resolutions.  It’s a way to remind yourself of actions you can perform daily to help achieve your goals.   I, personally, will use my desk calendar to plan the necessary household chores, errands, appointments, gym visits, etc that I get so behind on, and I’m trying to be extremely realistic in doing so.  In other words, don’t cram each day full of to-dos that will never get to-done, thus causing guilt and a sense of discouragement and failure.

• DO plan one week at a time, and adjust the next week if something isn’t working for you. 
• And also, DO plan rewards for yourself when you reach certain milestones, whether it be a piece of dark chocolate at the end of a successful day, or a manicure and pedicure at the end of a successful month. If you’re anything like me, you don’t work for free.  I’m like the little mouse chasing the little piece of cheese tied to a fishing pole tied to its back.  If I have a reward in sight, I’ll do crazy things to get to it! 

This planner/desk calendar method can work for less tangible goals, as well.  For example, if you have resolved to be kinder and less impatient with your significant other, add “kindness” or “patience” or “bite my tongue” in with the rest of your daily reminders like “go to the gym” or “mop the floors.”  Look at your planner or calendar each morning, and occasionally throughout the day, if you can! 

Just create a system that works for you.

I have recently realized that I have no excuse not to change the things I dislike about myself and my routines.  Change probably won’t come easy or quick; like they say, “if you walked twenty miles into the forest, don’t expect to get back out in three.” 

But I have resolved to pray daily for the WILLINGNESS to change, and sometimes even for the willingness just to be willing. 

What are YOUR strategies for keeping your New Year’s resolutions?  I would love to hear them!