Do you or don’t you make New Year’s Resolutions? Every year I get caught up in making New Year’s resolutions.
When the month of December rolls around, I think about setting goals. The past few years I’ve shifted away from concrete goals to more general goals which are more difficult to measure but are more meaningful (to me.)
I’ve always set goals to eat better–more salads and less fast food. And I’ve always included a vacation destination on my list–because it’s fun to dream. But I also remind myself not to look too far ahead. As a writer our lives revolve around deadlines. Every day…every week…every month…we’re looking ahead to the next deadline and we forget to enjoy today.
Blame it on the wisdom of growing older but I’m learning to appreciate each day no matter how uneventful it ends up being. It’s taken years for me to learn to stop equating happiness with achieving a goal. Whether we meet our goals or not…we’re still entitled to be happy and enjoy our lives.
All of us need to get better at accepting and loving ourselves, warts and all. There’s beauty in everything and in every person.
No matter what our goals it’s not that difficult to find a reason to be happy every day. Often we get caught up…so focused on a goal, that we forget to recognize and appreciate our blessings in life. Life is short. We only get so many trips around the sun and none of us knows that number.
So this year I will count my blessings each and every day, appreciate the small stuff in my life, be kind to others and of course read more books!
Question: How have your New year’s Resolutions changed as you’ve grown older?
Until Next Time…Happy Trails!
I may have grown up in the Midwest but my favorite place in the whole world is Arizona. Hubby and I are recent empty nesters living in Phoenix and we like to take off and explore the Grand Canyon State every chance we get. I’ve been writing contemporary western romances since 2004 for Harlequin and also write contemporary romance for Tule Publishing Group in addition to romantic women's fiction for Berkley-Penguin Random House. When I’m not writing I like to spend my free time junk hunting, researching ghost tours and exploring Route 66. I invite you to visit www.marinthomas.com to learn more about my books and where I hang out on social media.
I make the same ones every year and break them every year. That has not changed. Maybe my new resolution should be to follow them
Debra, I’m cheering you on this year!
I quit making resolutions years ago. I only ended up disappointed when I couldn’t keep them.
In all the years I made resolutions, Janine, I rarely kept them all year long. Life always got in the way 🙂
I loved this post. Every year I make them — and every year I do my best to make them come true. I try. This year, unfortunately, one of my resolutions is going to have to be to lose the 5 lbs I put on over the Christmas holidays. : ) Goodness!
Karen, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t put on weight over the holidays! I think next year I’ll plan on dieting in October, losing a few pounds that month then not worry about holiday weight gain the rest of the year 🙂
I don’t make resolutions. I’d just end up breaking them.
Estella, maybe that should be our New year’s Resolution…no resolutions!
I generally don’t make resolutions other than to keep trying to be a better me, if that makes any sense at all. I guess that’s the difference in resolutions as I’ve grown older: They’re more general about me and my life overall than being specific, targeted object goals.
Happy New Year!
I like having general goals, too, Eliza! Happy New Year to you, too 🙂
I was never very good at keeping specific resolutions. It was always lose weight, exercise more, and finish projects. Rarely happened. I still think about those resolutions, but don’t concentrate so much on them. With age and a year of health issues, it is finish getting healthy and stay that way. Funny thing, that involves lose weight and exercise more, sigh. I still want to get things done, but if I don’t, they will be there tomorrow. I look at things more in a Bucket List way. We have several trips we would like to take, place we’d like to see, and experiences we’d like to have. We are working on those. Last year our resolution was to make it to Alaska this summer and we got a RV. Didn’t happen, so we took a few small trips. This coming year , health allowing, we will make the big (3 to 4 month) trip West to Alaska. If not, we will work on the other, closer places we want to visit and things we want to do. Be flexible, that is the key to being happy.
Patricia, I love the bucket list idea. I hope you get to Alaska this year that would be an amazing trip!
I don’t make resolutions.
Just saw my gastroenterologist this morning. She said I have to cut back on my tea consumption. So, I have that lifestyle change to make.
Denise, sorry to hear about having to cut back on drinking tea. I’ve noticed as I’ve grown older that I have to watch my sugar intake-I used to be able to eat a huge piece of cake or six frosted cookies but if I do that now I get sick. And wouldn’t you know the older I grow the more I crave sugar. Everything in moderation I guess.
I stopped making resolutions years ago because something would interfere or I’d never carry through. So now I just plan to do things differently or work on them when I can. Happy New Years.
Carol Luciano
Sounds like a great plan, Carol…as long as we keep trying that’s what matters most!
I don’t make resolutions but I do strive to live each day in a way that is pleasing to God. Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year!
Connie
cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com
Happy New Year to you too, Connie!