Every year, we are beseeched to make a life altering decision based soley on the changing of the calendar. We promise ourselves to lose weight, stop smoking, stop spending money, stop eating or drinking anything not 100% good for us and stop being everything that makes us who we are. The single New Year's Resolution I've ever kept was the one I made when I vowed to stop making resolutions that I knew I was never going to keep. Yay me! I look at the new year as a chance to start, not stop, doing things. New Year, new beginning? Let's START, not stop doing things. It's when we stop that we stagnate, right?
Thinking back over the years, I have resolved to lose weight in 15 of my 41 years. To stop smoking 9 times, stop spending all but totally necessary money 11 times, to stop being sarcastic 5 times. Guess what? All that resolving and I'm still a Reubenesque, bitchy smoker. The money thing is a nonissue, you have to have some in the first place if you're going to spend irresponsibly. So what do New Year's Resolutions really get us? One more thing to feel bad about when we FAIL. I'm not doing it anymore, so there.
I've decided this is the year that I do stuff, not stop doing stuff. I'm not going to resolve to learn Mandarin or the Tango nor am I going to skydive, run with the bulls or learn to juggle chainsaws. I'm going to give the little things a shot, eat dinner as a family at least three times a week. Go to the library and spend time there at least once a month. Take walks in the evenings. Play more games and learn more about the people in my life. These are simple things that I do once in a while, but would really like to do them more often. I'm not going to call these New Year's Resolutions, they're more like, New Year's Tune Ups. These are things that could simply use a little more attention in the new year. I'm changing nothing, just improving on the bones of what's already here.
Besides, if I kept all those old resolutions and became annoyingly perfect, whatever would I have to complain about?
