New Year's Resolutions--Thoughts

How am I doing with my New Year’s resolutions? Well….

First, I suppose we should examine those resolutions so we can have a little background information.  There were two of them. They were….

First, though, we should consider why people make New Year’s resolutions in the first place. That way, perhaps we will understand this situation a little better. We must admit that we all do it. This way, I will not feel alone.

I propose two main reasons people feel compelled to make resolutions at the beginning of new years.

1. People tend to examine their lives at the end of a year. Christmas has just happened—it’s a time of hurrying, buying and giving gifts, a time for expressing love, a season full of emotion and reflection. During the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, many people have gone back home, and school and work have started or will start again soon, in earnest. And we have done a great deal of sitting around and eating during the Christmas season. We don’t feel very good, physically. Emotionally, we are tired and ready for a change.

2. We feel hopeful when we see a beginning. Things can improve. What better time is there to transform ourselves, to make amends, to renovate our lives?

So. With these reasons in mind, we may now examine my two resolutions:

1. I would lose a little weight, exercise more, eat more sensibly. That might sound like several resolutions, but they are actually closely related, as I am sure we can all see.

2. I would become better organized, less halter-skelter, figure out how to control clutter.

I confess that I have not lost weight, although I have not gained any more, either. I exercise about the same amount and eat about the same way I did before Christmas. I have thought more about being organized, and I have worked on it a little bit. Things are about the same as they were.

On January 3, I wrote down in my journal some thoughts about my resolutions and how they would soon change my life. Then I thumbed through the next few days of the journal and made a discovery. On January 5, 2012, I wrote that in 2012, I would work very hard at losing a little weight, exercising, and organizing my life.